curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Paul Krugman:
How did U.S. debt get so big?
Federal debt is in the news. There were many headlines last week about the debt exceeding $40 trillion and now being bigger than the economy. There were also headlines about rising interest rates on long-term debt and the showy, ineffectual attempt of Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, to manipulate them down.
Some of this is hype. Properly measured, debt is “only” $32 trillion. The comparison with GDP involves apples and oranges. And as I argued the other day, rising rates do not signal an imminent fiscal crisis.
Yet the debt is indeed very large and some concern is warranted. … Republicans will deny that there is a debt problem as long as they hold the White House.
But first we need to ask the question of how we got here. JD Vance says that it’s Joe Biden’s fault, because of course he does. Many others blame either reckless public spending or the fiscal burden of an aging population.
The reality, however, is that U.S. debt would be much lower as a percentage of GDP, and would barely be in the news at all, without the revenue loss from tax cuts enacted by Republican presidents: George W. Bush in the 2000s, then Donald Trump during both of his terms.
(Paul Krugman more…)
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Stephen Marche:
America Came for Canada. We Said No.Friday, Aug. 21, may go down in history as Canada’s Liberation Day. It was the day America came for us, and we said no.
… Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the American proposal. “Last-minute changes in the U.S.-proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic and called into question the reliability of any deal,” Mr. Carney said in a statement. “Canada will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses.”
(Stephen Marche more…)Heather Delaney Reese:
Yesterday, right as negotiations with our closest ally were collapsing, Donald Trump appeared to have no cares in the world as he posed for glamour shots for his new presidential headshots.Dean Blundell:
The Annexation Papers. What Trump/Lutnick Actually Demanded From Canada Behind Closed Doors, Why It Was Never A Trade Deal…
One. They demanded control over who Canada trades with. …
Two. They came for the French language. …
Three. They tried to rig the auto sector to strip our jobs. …
Four. They demanded we dismantle our own domestic policies, right down to the provincial level. …
Five. The resource grab was queued up for “phase two.” …
Six. The snapback. The remote-control tariff. Sign all of the above away permanently, and in exchange receive tariff relief that Trump can revoke any afternoon he wakes up feeling “aggrieved.” …
(Dean Blundell more…)
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Farooq Zargar, Ilhak Tantray @ XYLOM:
Reporting on Kashmir’s Disappearing Water Bodies…
The biggest lesson came from the communities living around these water bodies. Losing a lake or wetland is not simply losing a piece of nature. It can affect livelihoods, water quality, health, and flood protection. The reporting made us realise that protecting Kashmir’s water bodies is ultimately about protecting the people who depend on them.
(Farooq Zargar, Ilhak Tantray @ XYLOM more…)
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Allison Gill:
FBI Admits it has Over an Hour of Epstein Redaction Training VideosDespite there being no exemption in the Epstein Files Transparency Act to withhold these training materials, the FBI refuses to hand them over, and they waited 8 months to tell us.
(Allison Gill more…)Arkansas Public Advocate:
Withheld Epstein FBI notes tied to unverified Trump allegation surface online, raising new DOJ questions
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Marina Dunbar @ Guardian:
Devoted Trump aide flooded her now-disabled profile urging people to ‘never concede’ on 6 January 2021
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD:
Dr. Ruth Report, 8/23/26
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Heather Cox Richardson: Week Thirteen in 250 to 250
Last week was the thirteenth week of videos from the 250 to 250 Project that we’re producing to honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Our hope was for the videos to emphasize the agency of Americans—mostly everyday Americans—to change the country. Each falls into a category that defines what it means to be an American, including community, democracy, innovation, mobility, civil rights, education, conservation, and creativity. Once again this week, some of our narrators chose their own topics adding wonderful new stories.
This was yet another week of spectacular narrators who themselves represent the innovation, talent, and civic-mindedness we were hoping to celebrate.
https://www.youtube.com/@twofiftytotwofifty
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Thom Hartmann: Epilogue: What History Will Say About Us
Next weekend, Sunday August 30 at noon ET, 9am PT, we’ll discuss this book, my newest, Who Killed the American Dream. This weekend and next, I’m sharing the final chapter of the book.
(Thom Hartmann more…)
Last Days in Two Nations
Climate.us
formerly Climate.gov
Climate Solutions Explorer
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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