curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Bill McKibben:
Setting money on fire
(Also the planet)
… I will try to see clearly enough to discern some of the latest numbers in the climate and energy battle—numbers which prove to me the economic folly of staying on our current course.
… There is at this point no doubt that the world would operate more cheaply on clean energy, which is a lucky thing, and one that needs to be hammered home till the conventional wisdom (that sun and wind and batteries are a luxury) is finally routed.
The most basic point, of course, and yet one often lost in the debate is that once you’ve installed renewable energy you no longer have to pay for fuel. …
In 2025, renewables helped to avoid an estimated USD 480 billion in fossil fuel costs and around 8.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
If we round the number of our fellow humans off to about 8 billion, that’s $60 for every man, woman and child on the face of the planet, even though we’re still fairly early on the adoption curve for clean power. The numbers are stark:
Since 2010, the cost of solar PV has fallen by 89%, onshore wind by 71%, and offshore wind by 63%. This highlights how renewables are now the cheapest source of new electricity in most markets. In 2025, more than 90% of newly commissioned, utility-scale capacity delivered power at a lower cost than the cheapest, newly-installed fossil-fuel-based alternative.
…
Just to reiterate: instead of speeding the conversion to clean cheap energy, which would save households huge amounts of money, we’re instead shoveling taxpayer cash to the fossil fuel industry, and in the process overheating the earth, which will be the most expensive thing that ever happened, by orders of magnitude. …
(Bill McKibben more…)
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Across America, let’s make good trouble.
We are facing the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations.
The same spirit that fueled Selma, Montgomery, and the March on Washington lives on in our unified action.
Join us from July 17th – July 19th as we honor the legacy of John Lewis and carry the torch of the civil rights movement.
GoodTroubleLivesOn.org
C.J. Atkins @ People’s World:
Good Trouble Lives On: ‘Teach! Reach! Preach!’ voting rights weekend
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Thom Hartmann:
Midterm Elections: The Con Always Works, Right Up Until the Moment it Doesn’tDemocracy has survived con men before, but only because ordinary Americans refused to become the mark…
… Donald Trump will look into a television camera and tell America he’s rescuing democracy. He teased the address to reporters this week, promising “really big news” about “free and fair elections” and adding that “it doesn’t get bigger.” For once, he and I agree. It doesn’t get bigger.
An administration official told Reuters that the speech will center on newly declassified intelligence about the 2020 election and what the White House calls voting machine vulnerabilities open to foreign hackers; multiple election experts quoted in that same reporting warn he’s laying the groundwork to contest Republican losses this November.
To understand what we’ll actually be watching Thursday night, we have to go back to 1973, to a Manhattan night spot called Le Club, where a 27-year-old Donald Trump, freshly sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent apartments to Black families, met the most feared lawyer in New York. …
…Over their thirteen years together, Cohn drilled three rules into his student: Attack, never defend. Deny everything, admit nothing. Claim victory no matter what actually happened.
Liz Dye:
Todd Blanche is Roy Cohn … but worseRepublicans own the orgy of corruption that will follow their vote to confirm him.
Miles Taylor:
The president has long fantasized about using secret, “break glass” presidential authorities. The midterms might be his chance to abuse them.
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Ashley Belanger @ arsTECHNICA:
Judge: Trump can’t deport researchers just for working in content moderation
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Katelyn Jetelina @ Your Local Epidemiologist:
Top 10 Cyclospora questions
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Heather Delaney Reese:
Maybe the impairments he is experiencing make him believe he too looks powerful in the picture?
(Heather Delaney Reese more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – July 15, 2026
Exactly five years ago, on July 15, 2021, I wrote:
“Today Americans began to see the concrete effects of the American Rescue Plan show up in their bank accounts, as the expanded child tax credit goes into effect for one year. Through this program, the Child Tax Credit increased to $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 per child under 6. All working families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 for a couple or $112,500 for a family with a single parent. The government sent payments for almost 60 million children on Thursday, totaling $15 billion.
“This is a really big deal. In America, one in seven children lives in poverty. This measure is expected to cut that poverty nearly in half. Studies suggest that addressing childhood poverty continues to pay off over time, as it helps adults achieve higher levels of mobility.”
The American Rescue Plan, passed in March 2021, was an early achievement of the Biden presidency, becoming a signature law as every Republican voted against it. A year later, researchers at the Brookings Institute found that the temporary expansion of the child tax credit lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty before it expired on December 31, 2021.
Family members did not stop working, as critics said they would. Instead, they used the money to cover routine expenses, decreasing their reliance on credit cards; had better nutrition; and made long-term investments in education for both children and parents.
Now, five years later, the results of the Republicans’ signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed without a single Democratic vote and signed into law last July, are revealing a very different set of priorities.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Lucian K. Truscott IV:
Donald Trump acts every day as if the presidency gives him the power to kill people at will.Mary Geddry: ICE has apparently found a more efficient solution: create the hazardous stop, place the agent near the car and then cite the hazard as justification for shooting the driver.
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Joyce Vance:
Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions?Norman Eisen, Jennifer Rubin, 7 others @ Contrarian: A Collection of Blanche Checks
Borowitz: Pam Bondi Upstages Todd Blanche Hearings by Releasing Naked Photos of Trump on Epstein’s Island
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Jeff Schogol, Patty Nieberg @ Task & Purpose:
Pentagon announces testosterone screening for troops 30 and olderDean Blundell:
Pete Hegseth Announces Mandatory Testosterone Testing Of All US Troops – Women Too – And The Creation Of “The High T Dept of War.” I Wish I Was Kidding.You can’t parody this administration anymore. They keep beating you to it.
(Dean Blundell more…)
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Decoding Fox News:
The Propaganda Machine’s Selective Outrage Over Conspiracy TheoriesA condensed overview of 22 hours of Fox News for the week ending 7/12/26
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
Mike Ludwig @ truthout: ICE Says 51 People Died in Custody Under Trump. Experts Say That’s an Undercount.
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- July 13: Joan Sebastian Guerrero
- July 7: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
- June 4: Mamuka Artmeladze
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- 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
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