curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Paul Krugman:
Curing U.S. Health Care, Part II
How we got to Obamacare
…
The ACA, which went into full effect in 2014, created a system of subsidies and regulations designed to make health insurance available to many Americans who had previously been left out. It worked: In 2010 there were 47 million uninsured people in America, but by 2016 this number had dropped to 27 million. This still fell short of the universal health insurance that every other advanced nation has, but it was real progress.
In 2017, during his first term, Donald Trump tried to destroy the ACA, replacing it with the American Health Care Act — legislation that would have eliminated most of the provisions that expanded health insurance under Obama.
At the time the Congressional Budget Office projected that the G.O.P.’s replacement bill would nearly double the number of Americans without health insurance, increasing the total uninsured population by 23 million and undoing all of the progress achieved under the ACA.
However, the attack on Obamacare failed by one vote in the Senate, and the ensuing public backlash against the G.O.P. delivered a large victory in the 2018 midterms to the Democrats. After these developments many observers assumed that the ACA had become a more or less permanent feature of American life.
Such assessments, however, failed to take into account the deep hostility of the U.S. right toward policies that expand access to healthcare. As we’ll see, this hostility goes back generations. And the second Trump administration has taken actions that the CBO projects will add 16 million people to the rolls of the uninsured by 2034.
(Paul Krugman more…)
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Noah Berlatsky: Trump has no way out on Iran
He can’t win; he won’t say he’s lost. So he dithers.
On May 18, President Trump posted some fan fiction about his ill-fated war against Iran and got pre-mad at the “Fake News Media” for not covering his imaginary victory in a sufficiently fawning manner.
Eight days later, still locked in the same spiral of self-pity and spite — and with an actual Iran peace deal apparently no closer — Trump posted the exact same thing again.
(Noah Berlatsky more…)Deuce Davis: Iran and Its Talking Points
There are two narratives that I have come across. Trump-adjacent spokespeople are dispelling the popular notion among anti-Trump groups that Iran has humiliated President Trump because it shows its control over the Strait of Hormuz. Actually, the entity that controls the Strait of Hormuz is the insurance underwriting industry in London. When the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in late February, the consequence that actually paralyzed the waterway was not a blockade but a financial one: all twelve members of the International Group of P&I Clubs, which is the risk pool that covers roughly 90% of the world’s oceangoing tonnage, cancelled certain war-risk coverage on 72-hour notice, and traffic through the Strait fell by about 95% from its prewar average of 178 ships a day. That is a sign that the situation is more complex than a buzz phrase circulating on the Never Trump circuit.
(Deuce Davis more…)Lawrence Winnerman @ BlueAmp Media: This Isn’t a Recession. It’s Worse.
The cushion runs out in August. The CEOs already know. Here’s what is actually happening to the American economy — and the question no politician has yet had the nerve to ask.
(Lawrence Winnerman @ BlueAmp Media more…)
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James Eagle: The combustion engine has already peaked
The combustion engine may not end with a ban or a dramatic last model rolling off the line. It may end first as a peak. According to the IEA data used by Our World in Data, global sales of non-electric cars topped out in 2017 and have not recovered that level.
That is a more important milestone than it sounds. Electric vehicles are not merely adding volume to the car market. They are beginning to replace the old engine in the annual flow of new sales.
(James Eagle more…)Ben Elgin, Sophie Alexander, Olivia Rudgard, Joe Wertz @ Bloomberg: Bezos Earth Fund Lags Behind $10 Billion Spending Goal
In 2020, Jeff Bezos pledged to give $10 billion to climate and nature causes. Now the Bezos Earth Fund is off pace to meet that 2030 target.
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Scott Bauer @ AP: Don Lemon seeks grand jury transcripts in Minnesota civil rights case, citing misconduct
Attorneys for former CNN host turned independent journalist Don Lemon argued in a court filing Wednesday that recent examples of grand jury misconduct by the U.S. Department of Justice across the country warrant the release of transcripts from the normally secretive proceedings in his case.
Alys Davies, Ana Faguy @ BBC: US justice department launches criminal investigation into Trump accuser E Jean Carroll
Allison Gill: In establishing the “anti-weaponization” fund, the government failed to follow the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), so I’m suing to set the fund aside.
Liz Dye: Trump Admin Shows Commitment To Transparency With Government-Wide Gag Order
Speech so free they’ll jail you for it.
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 28, 2026
It’s an excellent bet that future books and films made about the Trump Era will begin with an image of the White House this week. The world-famous Rose Garden has been replaced with a patio that looks like one at Mar-a-Lago. The East Wing is rubble. And on the sweeping South Lawn, right outside the front door of the White House, construction is underway on a massive Ultimate Fighting Championship arena for cage matches to be held on Trump’s 80th birthday.
Now treating the nation’s capital as his property, Trump appears to be leaning on his past role as a real estate developer as a solution in Iran remains elusive, inflation in the U.S. climbs, and his popularity drops.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Jennifer Rubin @ Contrarian: Trump Saddles Republicans with Paxton
Paxton can damage Republicans beyond Texas
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Samantha Cole @ 404 Media: Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care
A popular virtual therapy platform is telling providers and patients they’ll have to do facial scanning soon, forcing some to choose between handing over their data and continuing care.
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Anna Louie Sussman @ NY Times: Why So Few Babies? We Might Have Overlooked the Biggest Reason of All.
… The future has never been assured, but it feels as though we are living in a time of spectacular uncertainty.
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Contrarian: Prep for ‘Freedom Summer’ 2.0 and Stand Against the Cuba Blockade
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Jess Piper: … They are governing for themselves and the billionaires who bankroll them.
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Borowitz: Mexico Nabs Pam Bondi Trying to Sneak Across Border
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Decoding Fox News: Fox News: Trump Will Destroy Iran Any Day Now We Swear!
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 5/24/26
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
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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