Yesterday’s News 2026-08-29

curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’

Qasim Rashid, Esq.:
Today Is the Anniversary of Emmett Till’s Murder

Jennifer Rubin:
Still fighting Jim Crow 63 years after the March on Washington.

…
Hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, the event today reiterates three goals:

• We march to defend the vote …
• We march to defend civil rights …
• We march for economic justice …

Thirteen years ago, President Barack Obama reminded us at the 50^th commemoration that the very significance of political/legal victories achieved following the 1963 March may have “obscured” the march’s economic agenda. The original attendees, Obama recalled, “were not there in search of some abstract ideal. They were there seeking jobs as well as justice — not just the absence of oppression but the presence of economic opportunity.”

Real Time 1960s:
Aug. 28, 1966 | National Guard Called to Milwaukee Suburb for Civil Rights March

Heather Cox Richardson:
Letters from an American – August 28, 2026

…
In 1968, former vice president Richard M. Nixon won the presidency after promising that he would not continue to use the federal government to protect Black rights in the South. With that promise, racists made a permanent move from the Democrats to the Republicans, joining forces with businessmen who wanted an end to regulation and to taxes and the social welfare programs they funded. The race to tear apart the postwar government that helped all Americans by appealing to racism was on.

Now, in 2026, the contours of that bargain are extreme and unmistakable.
…

Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security posted on social media: “Haiti TPS has been TERMINATED. Those with TPS are in our nation illegally. They have two options: LEAVE IMMEDIATELY or be DEPORTED.” Attached was a video of chained Black men and women being moved through the rain toward a waiting plane.

Officials at DHS chose to publish a video of Black people in chains that evoked the slave coffles of the Old South.
(Heather Cox Richardson   more…)

• Robert Reich:
  As he loses power, Trump’s extrajudicial gestapo tactics are worsening

  Imagine living in a country that can arrest and imprison you whenever it wants, without any judge or jury deciding you did anything wrong. It can call you a “domestic terrorist” and put you in prison for life. It can even execute you on the basis of nothing more than its own decision that you’re dangerous.

  Well, I have bad news for you. You’re living in that country right now.
  (Robert Reich   more…)

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• Kathryn Rubino @ Above the Law:
  The Mail-In Ballot Fight Is Right Back Where It Started, With The Trump Administration Taking Another ‘L’

  Joyce Vance:
  It’s Long, It’s Complicated, And It’s Definitely Worth Your Time

  …

  We’ve now reached the point in this case where the lawfulness—or not—of what Trump wants to do to our elections takes center stage. The case will go back to the Supreme Court and the Court will have to decide whether the Constitution, which clearly leaves this bit of election administration up to the states, still matters. Will the Roberts Court decide to undo 250 years of American democracy? Are there five votes left for the rule of law? One hopes that even on this court, a majority, however slender, that will do the right thing exists.

  ---

• Paul Offit:
  For several reasons, the Pennsylvania measles outbreak is about to get much worse

  Katelyn Jetelina @ Your Local Epidemiologist:
  Two more kids die. And one more theater show.

  ---

• James Eagle:
  Young Americans’ social lives didn’t recover after Covid

  This chart isn’t about loneliness, but rather something simpler than that. In some ways, it’s more striking. Young adults in America can spend an entire waking day without physically being with another person.
  

  
  
  
  (James Eagle   more…)

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• Paul Krugman:
  Make Geography Great Again

  There are already reports that Trump may not stop with trying to rename Lake Ontario Lake America, and rename other places too. So I have a few suggestions.

  I mean, the Pacific Ocean? That sounds weak and woke. Let’s rename it the Lethality Ocean.

  Farther afield, the Black Sea? Sounds DEI to me. Make it the European Heritage Sea.

  What about the Cape of Good Hope? Real Americans don’t hope, they act (with warrior ethos.) Rename it the Cape of Epic Fury.
  December 6, 1975 – Steve Goodman – You Never Even Call Me By My Name

  ---

• Natasha Lennard @ Intercept:
  A New Tree-Sit Movement to Block Trump’s Border Wall

  A single tree sit grew into a cross-border continuous protest to defend the Arizona borderland ecology. So far, activists are succeeding.
  

  
  
  
  (Natasha Lennard @ Intercept   more…)

  Shawn Hubler, Maxine Joselow @ NY Times:
  Trump Administration Looks to Give a Swath of Yosemite Park to Developer

  ---

• Dan Robinson @ Register:
  US datacenters tripled their water footprint in 10 years

  … and those are figures from the start of the AI boom. It can only be worse now. Silo-ed reporting isn’t helping

  ---

• Gil Duran:
  Crypto is holding a gun to democracy

  
  
  

  Rebecca Ballhaus, Sam Kessler, Angus Berwick @ WSJ:
  Trump Family’s New Crypto Bank Is Backed by Abu Dhabi Sheikh

  ---

• Paul Sonne @ NY Times:
  Why Putin Is Fighting On, Even as His Problems Multiply

  There is little sign that public exhaustion, economic headwinds or increased Ukrainian strikes are changing the Russian leader’s view that he will eventually achieve victory.

  ---

• Lucian K. Truscott IV:
  Hegseth is panicking

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  Last Days in Two Nations

  Climate.us

  formerly Climate.gov

  Climate Solutions Explorer

  Have I Been Flocked?

  Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting

  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

  1. August 1: Edwin Lopez-Cornejo
  2. July 19: Jose Chajon-Raxon
  3. July 14: Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran
  4. July 13: Joan Sebastian Guerrero
  5. July 7: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
  6. June 4: Mamuka Artmeladze
  7. April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
  8. March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
  9. March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
  10. March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
  11. 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

  12. January 24: Alex Pretti
  13. January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
  14. January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
  15. January 9: Parady La
  16. January 7: Renée Good
  17. January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
  18. January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
  19. January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
  20. 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

  1. The Impact Map
  2. United States Disappeared Tracker
  3. ICE Flight Tracking
  4. Regulatory Changes Tracker
  5. Trump Administration Litigation Trackers
  6. Far Right Groups Targeting Pride Month