curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Nick Turse @ Intercept: Top Pentagon Official Admits Boat Strike May Have Killed Victims of Human Trafficking
If this boat was running drugs, why was it loaded with so many people?
Nine months into the Trump administration’s deadly campaign against so-called drug boats, there is a pattern to the strikes. And a glaring anomaly.
The U.S. military has conducted more than 60 attacks, resulting in over 200 extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. In almost all the strikes, between one and four people lost their lives. In only one strike did the death toll of a single boat reach double digits: the first attack on September 2, 2025.
Since then, experts, lawmakers, and even military officials behind the scenes have been asking a simple but haunting question: Why was that boat packed with 11 people?
“Why would 11 people be on board a boat carrying drugs?” said a government source who attended a classified briefing where the large crew on the first boat attacked was discussed. “It’s a high risk for the cartels. That always stood out.”
One top military officer provided a plausible explanation, behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, The Intercept has learned. His admission raises even more questions about a strike that a high-ranking Pentagon official called a criminal attack on civilians and resulted in a firestorm in Congress last year.
In the briefing, the high-ranking officer on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff stated that some of the people killed by the U.S. military may have been the victims of human trafficking.
Shan Li @ WSJ: India Says U.S. Strike on Tanker in Iran Blockade Killed Three Nationals
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Anthony M: Klan Intimidation
Vote and Die
The Ku Klux Klan did not rise in Florida during the 1930s because Black people were powerless.
They rose because Black people were surviving.
And survival itself was seen as a threat.
Look closely at these photographs.
Hundreds of men dressed like ghosts.
Faces hidden.
Standing in formation under the dark Florida sky.
Then the second image:
a hooded Klansman sitting casually beside a car near a Miami voting center.That second image tells you everything.
Because the Klan was never just about hatred.
It was about control.And in 1930s Florida, white America believed it was losing control.
By the time these photos were likely taken, Black Floridians had already endured slavery, Reconstruction, lynching campaigns, segregation laws, and decades of political suppression. But despite all of it, Black communities across Florida were still organizing.
Still voting.
Still building businesses.
Still creating churches.
Still forming newspapers.
Still demanding citizenship in a country that only wanted their labor.
(Anthony M, Public Historian more…)
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Will Sommer @ Bulwark: The Meth-Tied GOP Operative Behind Bovino 2028
Just five months after being fired from his leadership role in Donald Trump’s mass-deportation campaign, former U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino is eyeing a run for president. He made his interest formally known earlier this week, after having just returned from a racist convention in Portugal in which he appeared alongside literal neo-Nazis.
“If running for President is what it takes to actually get it done, then all options are on the table,” Bovino wrote in a post on X endorsing the exploratory bid.
This post raised a lot of questions. Does terrorizing a major American city for weeks on end really serve as a strong platform for a run for office? Are there height restrictions for presidential candidates? And who, exactly, is behind this effort?
After all, to most observers, you’d have to be on meth to think that Bovino could actually prevail in a 2028 GOP primary against the likes of Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Right?
(Will Sommer @ Bulwark more…)Michael Fanome: Meth & Nazis Rock the 2028 GOP Primary
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James Eagle: SpaceX’s IPO would dwarf every modern listing
SpaceX is not arriving in public markets like a normal company. Bloomberg’s chart over here puts the planned deal at a $75 billion offer size and a target market value above $1.8 trillion, larger than any comparable listing since 2000.
That scale forces everyone else to react. Index providers, passive funds, ETF issuers, retail brokers and sceptical fund managers all have to decide whether the market should bend around a company before it has traded normally.
The listing is also a test of narrative value. Rockets, Starlink, AI infrastructure and Elon Musk control are being priced together. If the debut works, other private giants will see a route to market. If it stumbles, the whole mega-IPO queue looks more fragile.
(James Eagle more…)Robert Reich: Tomorrow’s IPO of SpaceX could turn out to be the universe’s largest Ponzi scheme, and you and I are paying part of the price whether we like it or not.
Center for Biological Diversity: Lawsuit Seeks to Stop SpaceX Land Deal From Destroying Texas Wildlife Refuge
Gil Duran: Venture Capitalist Rips Silicon Valley Political Spending
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 11, 2026
At 8:22 this morning, Trump posted on social media: “… we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America.”
Later, he called into the Fox News Channel to say: “Look, my preference has always been take Kharg Island…. …
There’s a lot in this statement, even aside from the fact that Trump still has not gotten congressional approval for his actions in Iran, although the 60-day time limit for exercising military action against an “imminent threat” provided by the 1973 War Powers Act expired on May 1.
Aside from that—which is huge—experts assess that taking Kharg Island, an island in the Persian Gulf that acts as the hub of Iran’s oil exporting sector, would require sending in ground troops. That idea is, indeed, extraordinarily unpopular, even for a war that has been unpopular since it began and is becoming more unpopular.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Tom Latchem @ DailyBeast: Trump’s Iran war ‘secret mission’ story crumbles under scrutiny
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Mitch Jackson: Donald Trump Will Resign in 2027. The First Domino Falls This November.
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Jennifer Rubin: Reality Defies Trump-Friendly Predictions
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A year ago, not many foreign policy gurus would have predicted nonstop war would leave Iran, not Israel, on the rise in the Middle East; upend the U.S.-Israel relations; and severely undermine AIPAC’s political attack machine.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
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Harry J. Kazianis @ National Security Journal: Every method of counting Russia’s Ukraine war dead now points to the same staggering conclusion
… the picture they form is the most expensive military campaign any country has waged since the Second World War.
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Jaidyn Bridgeforth @ Atlanta Black Star: ‘Would That Be Illegal?’: Bessent Walked Into Warren’s Hearing Not Knowing He Was About to Help Her Build the Case That Trump Should Be Investigated
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Sarah Fitzpatrick @ Atlantic: Trump Isn’t Giving Up on His Slush Fund
Despite insisting that a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund has been scrapped, the administration is quietly assuring allies that payout plans remain on track.
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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