curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 5, 2026
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had good news for the American people when he gave his twenty-ninth Fireside Chat on June 5, 1944. The day before, June 4, Rome had fallen to Allied troops. “The first of the Axis capitals is now in our hands,” Roosevelt said.
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On the morning of June 6, 1944, five naval assault divisions stormed the beaches of Normandy. Seven thousand ships and landing craft operated by more than 195,000 naval personnel from 8 countries brought almost 133,000 troops to beaches given the code names UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO, and SWORD.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Thom Hartmann: Trump’s Masked Goons are a Criminal’s Dream
America spent two centuries learning that law enforcement should show its face. Now we’re watching the consequences of ignoring that lesson…
Jennifer Rubin: Standing up to bullies in New Jersey, Russia, and at CBS News
When under siege from authoritarian aggressors, democratic forces are forced to engage in an unending series of skirmishes testing their will and values. We recently saw this play out in three very different settings. …
Adrian Carrasquillo @ Bulwark: How Delaney Hall Became Ground Zero in Trump’s Deportation Wars
This rundown detention center on an industrial strip in New Jersey is representative of what’s happening across the country.
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Lawrence Winnerman @ BlueAmp Media: They Found $4 Trillion in Eighteen Months. They Just Never Looked for You.
For forty years the answer was “how will you pay for it.” Then $4 trillion appeared for three companies that lose money—no vote, no debate. Here’s the receipt.
…Now hold that against the size of the thing it’s happening inside. The entire U.S. economy is about $30 trillion. These three companies, which mostly lose money, are claiming a combined value equal to roughly one-eighth of everything the United States produces in a year—before a single share has traded publicly.
(Lawrence Winnerman @ BlueAmp Media more…)Jackson Hoeke: The Community Cost of A.I. Data Centers
How the tech industry is constructing new data centers that are destroying communities
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James Eagle: US companies make up 59 of the world’s top 100 by market value
(James Eagle more…)
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Jack Hopkins: Epstein: The Files We’ll Never See
Everyone is arguing about what’s inside the Epstein documents. The more revealing story is the fight over whether we ever get to see them at all.
(Jack Hopkins more…)
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Amanda Marcotte: The war is “over” because look over there
Did y’all hear that the Iran war is “over”? So saith Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while being questioned by Sen. Cory Booker this week.
Like most things the administration claims, this is, of course, a lie. The war isn’t over and worse, it looks like there’s no possible or at least likely way for it to end, since any possible conclusion will involve a deal that cements Iran as the winners. So Donald Trump is stuck.
Rubio’s efforts suggest that one tactic the administration is considering is to give up on negotiations and slink away, pretending that everything somehow got resolved when it didn’t. Trump does have an extensive track record of using images and lies to create an illusion of success after a total failure. But since the war has resulted in soaring energy costs for all Americans, the “What war, look over there!” strategy may not work as well as his previous gaslighting efforts.
(Amanda Marcotte more…)
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Nick Mordowanec @ Military Daily News: DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military’s Recognized Religion List
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Josh Marcus @ Independent: Southern Poverty Law Center floats sanctions against DOJ after unsigned indictment shared with media before being filed in court
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Dissent in Bloom: Inside RFK Jr’s Crusade Against Autistic People
I’m starting this article on my lunch break — probably will finish it much later — but I am livid. If you’re new here, hi, I’m Dissent in Bloom. Yes, it’s a pseudonym.
I’m autistic. I’m a registered nurse. I run a nonprofit. I’m an activist. And I’m the mother of three wonderful autistic children.
This week, I found out RFK Jr. is seeking access to millions of Americans’ private medical records to, “study the link between vaccines and autism.”
A link that doesn’t exist. It’s been proven time and time again. But it keeps coming up.. to justify a crusade against people like me.
(Dissent in Bloom more…)
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Christina Pagel: Let’s celebrate the lowest Covid levels recorded since the pandemic started
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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