curated news excerpts & citations
John Pavlovitz: It’s Time to Tear Down The Golden Idol of White Christian Nationalism
As a Christian for most of my life and a pastor for nearly three decades, I’m quite familiar with the Old Testament story: supposedly faithful people fashioning an idol made of gold and cravenly bowing before it, in complete contempt for the God they claimed to believe in because they had lost their collective minds and souls.
This new American reboot is a little on the nose.
It’s also far more tragic.
We’ve had a few thousand years to get it right.
We shouldn’t be here.
Watching the collective soul-selling of my fellow Christians here in America over the past ten years has been something that has grieved me more than I can measure or accurately describe. Particularly disheartening has been watching ancient religious history repeating, and worse: to realize that nearly every national sickness here in America is coming from professed Christians:
The silencing of tens of millions of black and brown votes, the violent persecution of immigrants, the shielding from accountability for a cadre of sexual predators, the incessant legislative assaults on women’s and trans people’s body autonomy, and the brazen parade of white nationalism in churches throughout this nation.
If Jesus’ feet were on the planet, this God-mocking death cult of white supremacy would be the first table he’d flip.
(John Pavlovitz more…)
Nick Hilden @ AlterNet: Trump folds in ’embarrassing fashion’ after Congress calls his bluff
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 9, 2026
If you google the history of Mother’s Day, the internet will tell you that Mother’s Day began in 1908 when Anna Jarvis decided to honor her mother. But “Mothers’ Day”—with the apostrophe not in the singular spot, but in the plural—actually started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced writer and reformer Julia Ward Howe that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change society.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Terrence Goggin: Trump has been a total failure; yet some say we are living in “the Age of Trump”, we are not; it could be the “Age of Obama”
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Milan Czerny, Joe Parkinson. Drew Hinshaw @ WSJ: The Sailors Low on Supplies and Stuck in a War Zone
The sun was rising on a 65th day of chaos in the Strait of Hormuz and the crew of a Chinese-owned oil tanker was running into its final days of food. The navigation officer was on the bridge radioing the Iranian navy a question that had become maddeningly repetitive and desperately urgent: When would the ship be able to leave?
It was Monday and the officer, Shameem Sabbir, was surveying a seascape breaking into open conflict. American warships were guiding two U.S.-flagged vessels through the strait, past Iranian missile fire. The distress channel of his maritime radio was crackling with the pleas of seafarers among the 20,000 still stranded on cargo ships and tankers. Some were even lower on food and water than his own. Others were in despair, unsure what to believe after the latest round of proclamations from Washington and Tehran. Trapped in a surreal captivity, each day seemed to bring a barrage of dramatic news, yet nothing seemed to change.
(Milan Czerny, Joe Parkinson. Drew Hinshaw @ WSJ more…)
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Christopher Jasper @ Telegraph: Tankers break down as Iran war unleashes flood of tainted fuel
Shipping companies already grappling with the Iran war are facing a new threat as unscrupulous fuel suppliers flood the market with tainted oil.
There has been a sharp uptick in incidents of tankers breaking down in recent weeks. Experts have blamed it on marine fuel that has been cut with impure shale oil as suppliers react to surging fuel prices following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
(Christopher Jasper @ Telegraph more…)
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Idrees Ali, Erin Banco, Hatem Maher @ Reuters: US, Iran no closer to ending war as Tehran’s response awaited
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Washington expected a response within hours. But a day later, there was no sign of movement from Tehran on the proposal, which would formally end the war before talks on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.With U.S. President Donald Trump due to begin a long-awaited visit to China next week, there has been mounting pressure to draw a line under the conflict, which has thrown energy markets into turmoil and posed a growing threat to the world economy.
Recent days have seen the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the Strait of Hormuz since a ceasefire began a month ago, and the United Arab Emirates came under renewed attack on Friday.
(Idrees Ali, Erin Banco, Hatem Maher @ Reuters more…)
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Matthew Luxmoore @ WSJ: Putin Presides Over Downsized Military Parade as Ukraine War Drags On
Russian president says troops are ‘resisting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc’
Russia staged a sharply scaled-back version of its annual military parade on Saturday, amid fears of drone strikes by Kyiv, growing criticism of the Kremlin and increasing difficulties for its armed forces in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin watched from a podium as goose-stepping soldiers marched across Red Square, before delivering a brief speech praising Russia’s armed forces and comparing Russia’s current war in Ukraine to its resistance against invading Nazi forces in World War II.
(Matthew Luxmoore @ WSJ more…)Adrian Blomfield @ Telegraph: Putin’s day of humiliation
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The serried ranks of Russian soldiers goose-stepping beneath the Kremlin’s walls looked as splendid as ever. Yet there was little disguising the anxiety sweeping through Putin’s war machine.The reason for the disquiet is clear. Ukraine’s campaign of deep strikes within Russia has become so effective that not even the centre of Moscow feels safe from Kyiv’s missiles and drones.
Indeed, it was only after Putin prevailed on Donald Trump to negotiate a temporary ceasefire with Ukraine that the most important event in the Russian state calendar was able to proceed at all.
Little wonder the increasingly jowly Russian leader cut such a diminished and isolated figure as he took the salute.
(Adrian Blomfield @ Telegraph more…)
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Rebecca Solnit: Hey California! What Does It Take to Be Governor?
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
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Alejandra Martins @ BBC Mundo: The technological revolution of the “food valley”: how the Netherlands managed to become the world’s third largest food exporter with such a small territory
(Alejandra Martins @ BBC Mundo more…)
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- 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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