curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Mitch Jackson:
The Pentagon Is Paying People to Amplify Hegseth and Attack His Critics
Four accounts. Two million followers. Not one of them told you who signs the checks.
DISCLAIMER: Everything here comes from public reporting published in the last 48 hours, and this story is still moving, which means details will shift and some of what you read may look different in a week. Do your own due diligence, because I want you informed, not simply fired up.
For most of the summer, one of the loudest MAGA influencers and political voices on X has been a Special Government Employee at the Department of Defense who was drawing a government check and telling you nothing about it. Her name is Jennica Pounds. She posts as DataRepublican to nearly a million followers, and through July and August she went after the people Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, happens to dislike.
All of it landing on your screen looking like the honest work of a private citizen with a laptop and an opinion she came to on her own. She started working for the Pentagon in July. Her Pentagon press badge had expired in June.
The department confirmed her employment just a few days ago on August 24. It came out by accident, after she publicly accused a State Department official of setting her up, and a rival account dropped the fact that she was on the payroll. Nobody in government volunteered it.
(Mitch Jackson more…)
Heather Cox Richardson:
Letters from an American – August 31, 2026
Alex Horton and Tara Copp of the Washington Post reported on Sunday, August 30, that military leaders are warning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that a plan to continue large-scale operations in Iran is unsustainable and is weakening their ability to protect U.S. interests in other places, including at home.
…
Tonight Michael R. Gordon and Marcus Weisgerber of the Wall Street Journal reported that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation after struggling with Hegseth for months over Hegseth’s firing of senior Army officers and over the direction of the military.
Driscoll’s departure, the journalists note, leaves the Army without any Senate-confirmed civilian or military leaders.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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James Eagle:
The economy grew, but incomes didn’tSo, what’s the take away here? GDP tells you how much a country produced. It says almost nothing about what landed in households’ pockets. For that you need wages, prices, taxes and benefits. That’s why nobody for now feels richer.
(James Eagle more…)
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Josie Fischels @ NewsNation:
Farmer ‘alarmed’ with Trump’s plan to roll back meat processing regulations
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Alejandro Serrano @ Texas Tribune:
Feds allow return of Austin man, a US citizen, who was deported after traffic stopRook T. Winchester:
ICE Had Five Days to Listen to Brian Morales. Instead, It Deported Him.…
Brian told them he was born in Denver. He told them he was an American citizen. He told them he had a birth certificate and Social Security card at home. According to Brian, agents mocked him, ignored him across five days and five facilities, pressured him to sign voluntary departure papers, and threatened him with prison. Then they deported him to Mexico.
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Alex Nguyen @ Texas Tribune:
Brother of migrant shot by ICE agent in Houston released from detentionVictor Salgado, the brother of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot by ICE agents, is the third witness to be released from detention.
(Alex Nguyen @ Texas Tribune more…)
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Jay Kuo:
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas exploited a loophole that let an accused ICE agent walk free.
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Joseph Cox @ 404 Media:
How Cyber Sleuths Tracked a Nigerian Scammer to His DoorstepErin West and Paul Raffile went to Nigeria to track down a scammer. They found much more than just his identity.
(Joseph Cox @ 404 Media more…)
Last Days in Two Nations
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formerly Climate.gov
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Have I Been Flocked?
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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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