curated news excerpts & citations
Robert Reich: Stephen Miller’s Strait of Hormuz
His crackdown on immigrants is assumed to be good for America as long as it causes immigrants more pain than it does us. Same “logic” as Trump is using in Iran.
Trump’s chief bigot, Stephen Miller, said on Fox News that immigrants to the United States bring problems that extend through generations.
“Not only is the first generation unsuccessful,” Miller claimed. “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”
(Robert Reich more…)
-
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 15, 2026
On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln went to Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., to see a production of the comedy Our American Cousin. …
…But while Americans mourned Lincoln, the new president, Andrew Johnson, restored the political power of Confederates. On May 28, he issued a blanket pardon for most former Confederates except certain leaders and wealthy southern planters. Those he said could apply to him directly for a presidential pardon, which he promised would be “liberally extended.” They were. By December 1865 he had pardoned all but about 1,500 former Confederate leaders.
…The idea that those embracing the iconography of the Confederacy were simply defending individual liberty against an overreaching government became an article of faith among the radical right, especially as the Republican Party complained that the taxes necessary to run a modern government that included everyone were promoting socialism.
Former Army gunner Timothy McVeigh wrote to a newspaper in 1992, saying: “Taxes are a joke. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement…. Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.”. Three years later, McVeigh set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people, including nineteen children younger than six, and wounding more than 800 others. When captured, he was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Abraham Lincoln and the words “Sic Semper Tyrannis.”
In 2009, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a lawyer and former paratrooper who had been a staffer for Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), started a right-wing gang called the “Oath Keepers.” Claiming to take their inspiration from the patriots who stood against the British regulars on Lexington Green in 1775, they pledged to stand against what they considered a tyrannical government.
…In November 2022 a federal jury convicted Rhodes of seditious conspiracy for using force and violence to try to stop the process of the democratic election of a president. Juries found at least a dozen other Oath Keepers guilty of seditious conspiracy or other serious crimes.
As soon as he retook office in 2025, Trump issued a sweeping pardon …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Rook Winchester: AIDING AND COMFORTING INSURRECTIONISTS
-
Renée Feltz @ Truthout: “Alligator Alcatraz” Guards Allegedly Beat Prisoners for Requesting Phone Access
The ACLU told a judge that guards were obstructing her March order to provide phone access in the jail.
(Renée Feltz @ Truthout more…)
-
Liz Dye: Trump’s litigation extortion machine
Another day, another Trump trollsuit bites the dust.
This time it was his $10 billion defamation claim against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for an article describing a “bawdy” drawing he penned — allegedly! — for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.
…On Monday, a federal judge in Miami finally dismissed the case for failure to satisfy even the most basic requirements of federal pleading.
“The Complaint comes nowhere close to this standard,” wrote Judge Darrin Gayles. “Quite the opposite.”
This is not an isolated outcome. The world’s most famous vexatious litigant regularly spams courts demanding an eleven-figure payout.
-
Fred Wellman: Farmers in Missouri are getting squeezed again.
Last week, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins claimed that 80 percent of farmers had already locked in fertilizer prices and wouldn’t be affected by rising costs tied to the war and supply disruptions. Farmers immediately pushed back. Many don’t lock in fertilizer months in advance. Many can’t afford to. Many are already operating on razor-thin margins and taking on debt just to plant the next crop.
At the same time, another blow landed. China is actively reducing its reliance on U.S. soybeans by changing livestock feed and investing in domestic alternatives. That shift is already cutting demand and threatening long-term export markets for American farmers.
(Fred Wellman more…)
-
Shelby Holliday @ WSJ: Commercial Ships Transit Strait of Hormuz as U.S. Blockades Iran’s Ports
Brad Lendon @ CNN: Why are some ships going through the Strait of Hormuz during a blockade?
-
Margherita Stancati, Benoit Faucon and Henna Moussavi @ WSJ: Iran’s Regime Has Changed—for the Worse
The U.S.-Israeli attack fast-tracked the ascent of hard-liners and apocalyptic religious followers, raising doubts about a lasting peace
Diana Falzone @ NewsNation: IRGC controlling what citizens see as internet shutdown reaches Day 46
-
Alex Colston @ zeteo: Zeteo Joins the Gaza Flotilla as It Sets Sail to Break Israel’s Blockade
-
Molly Olmstead @ Slate: It Turns Out, the President Can’t Get Away With Insulting the Pope and Portraying Himself as Jesus
At least, he can’t anymore.
James Eagle: Trump’s approval is sinking faster this time
(James Eagle more…)
-
Decoding Fox News: Fox News: The War is Over! The War’s a Mess! This is Not 3-Dimensional Chess!
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 4/12/26
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - 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
Leave a Reply