curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Chris Geidner:
Trump is calling the organization suing him — the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States — “TREASONISTS.“
Heather Cox Richardson:
Letters from an American – August 14, 2026
Today the Trump administration asked the United States Supreme Court to let it build Trump’s ballroom where the East Wing of the White House used to be. Trump ignored Congress and its authority over government building projects when he tore down the East Wing and began construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the site. He claimed initially that there would be no cost to taxpayers for what he estimated to be a $200 million project; already estimates have risen to at least $900 million to be “covered primarily by taxpayers.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to stop construction, and lower courts have agreed, … On August 7 an appeals court wrote: “We are aware of no instance in American history in which a President unilaterally and using privately collected funds demolished substantial portions of the White House that Congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid for. Until now.”
…
The timing of Trump’s request that the Supreme Court allow him to ignore Congress and the law in order to spend taxpayer money on a vanity project provides a dramatic contrast to the actions of the government ninety-one years ago.
On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:
“In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.”Toni Morrison (1931–2019), American novelist and Nobel laureate
Kareem’s Quote of the Day: When does a hyphen express the pride of identity, and when does it become a border drawn by someone else?
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Isaac Dellinger:
Across the Middle East the day-to-day toll of a six-month war is growingCairo is 1,500 miles from Tehran, and for months Egypt did not figure prominently in the Iran War.
Tatiana Carter @ NewsNation:
UAE blames Iran for drone attack on tankers in Strait of HormuzBrian Allen:
Pentagon Split the Iran War Into Two Casualty Lists. A Republican Congressman Says Hegseth Is “Breaking the Law”
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Dieter Mouchkatine @ KXAN:
Reclassified overnight: How a law change and tuition shock ended a UT student’s dream
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Jess Piper:
The boots you lick will stomp you too…
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Brian Merchant:
There are fresh signs that the AI bubble is wobbling. Again.
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Lisa Needham:
Trump’s war on juriesJurors are being told that their careful work doesn’t matter.
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Tom Latchem @ DailyBeast:
MAGA Goon in Hot Water for Tricking Trump Like ICE BarbieKristi Noem’s successor has infuriated the White House by copying a playbook that cost her the job.
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Rook T. Winchester:
Is Donald Trump being treated by the Department of Justice as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein?
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Thom Hartmann:
Trump Is Making Money Laundering Great AgainHis administration is destroying one of the paper trails investigators need to follow secret money…
(Thom Hartmann more…)
- Brian Allen:
Two Texas Pastors Say Federal Agents Used Their Three U.S.-Citizen Children to Pressure Them to Leave the Country…
Cardona says officers warned that she and her husband could remain incarcerated for as long as six months without their sons, be deported separately to different countries and lose access to phone calls unless they signed voluntary-departure papers. During an interrogation around 2 a.m., she says an agent cursed at her and mocked her Christian faith.
(Brian Allen more…)
Have I Been Flocked?
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
- August 1: Edwin Lopez-Cornejo
- July 19: Jose Chajon-Raxon
- July 14: Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran
- 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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