curated citations to news sources
Dean Blundell: Trump Didn’t Arrange An “Historic” Peace Summit – Europe Forced Its Way Into the Room
And it took less than 12 hours for Trump to walk it all back on Fox News.
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Monday (Aug 18): In front of the cameras and a wall of European flags, Trump flirted with U.S. participation in security guarantees for Ukraine—even leaving the door cracked to some U.S. role “on the ground” after a deal. Europeans called it movement; markets called it noise; Moscow recoiled.
Tuesday morning (Aug 19): On Fox, Trump walked it back, giving his “assurance” there would be no U.S. troops and shifting the burden to Europe. In the same media swing he reprised the blame-shifting—saying the war really started over NATO and Crimea, and urging Zelenskyy to “show flexibility.” That’s the classic Trump pattern: say whatever looks strong in the moment, then retreat to a pro-Kremlin frame once the pressure’s off.
Translation: Europe’s decision to pack the Oval Office was the only way to get Trump to mouth the words “security guarantees.” The instant that the United Front left town, he reverted. Exactly as expected.
(Dean Blundell more…)
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Marisa Kabas: DC National Guard members actively training to carry pistols in capitol mission
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“Most National Guard leadership really want to keep their presence as de-escalatory and non-confrontational as possible,” Cohn told The Handbasket on Monday. “So not being armed would probably have been their initial call. Having them armed indicates either a concern for their physical safety or a desire to make them more intimidating (or both.)”She added: “The pistol is not the standard service weapon, but it can be considered more appropriate for law enforcement missions than the rifle.”
It should go without saying that bringing additional firearms into an already violent environment will only beget more violence. We’ve already seen that Black and Brown DC residents are experiencing a majority of law enforcement abuse, with the violent beating and arrest of a delivery worker from Venezuela by ICE on Saturday caught on camera.
“This is not safety. This is state-sponsored intimidation,” Eduardo Zelaya, Organizing Director for the immigrants’ rights organization CASA, wrote in a statement late last week. “From ICE raids to militarized patrols, this is an orchestrated campaign to terrorize our families. We will not stand by as our people are harassed, abducted, and pushed from the streets of the city we call home. These actions also hurt our economy by driving workers into the shadows and disrupting local businesses.”
(Marisa Kabas more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – August 19, 2025
Yesterday, the 51 Democratic Texas state representatives who left the state for Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts on August 3 to prevent Republican lawmakers from redistricting Texas to give five Democratic congressional seats to Republicans went back home. Immediately, they discovered that Republican House speaker Dustin Burrows wanted them to sign a statement that committed them to showing up for the Wednesday morning vote on the rigged maps President Donald Trump demands, limiting their liberty until they enabled the Republicans’ power grab. Burrows also assigned state troopers to the Democrats to monitor their movements around the clock to make sure they were present Wednesday morning and until the final vote on the measure.
Refusal to sign the commitment meant risking arrest.
Representative Nicole Collier, a Black woman who represents a majority-minority district in Fort Worth, refused to sign. …
…Today, Collier filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus to force the Texas House of Representative’s Sergeant-at-Arms to end her “illegal confinement” immediately.
Under pressure from a deeply unpopular president to rig the 2026 elections to keep MAGA Republicans in power, the Texas governor has called the Texas legislature into session to rewrite congressional district maps to create five new Republican-dominated districts. When Democrats tried to stop this power grab, Republican legislative leadership responded by assigning state troopers to make sure they showed up to let that power grab go through. When one refused to enter police custody to perform her job as an elected legislator, the Republican leadership took away her liberty.
On the road to authoritarianism, this is a whole factory of red flags.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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NY Times: Documents Add Detail to Fox Hosts’ Desire to Help Trump
The documents were released as part of a defamation case against Fox Corporation filed by Smartmatic, an election technology company.
…Smartmatic says that it, along with another company, Dominion Voting Systems, became the focus of conspiracy theories perpetuated by Fox News hosts that the companies were somehow linked to each other and were involved in rigging votes. Smartmatic had only provided voting technology in Los Angeles County and has no relationship to Dominion, according to the company.
Dominion also sued Fox for defamation. That case was settled for $787.5 million on the day the trial was set to begin in 2023.
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Jennifer Rubin: Trump’s “Crime” Canard
The battle in D.C. is every American’s fight
Despite last week’s lawsuit, which focused primarily on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s letter (since revised) purporting to “take over” the D.C. Metropolitan Police Force, the federal occupation of D.C. and assault on migrants has metastasized. Random checkpoints snare drivers indiscriminately. Violent arrests horrify residents, as when “Federal agents detained a food delivery driver as he emerged from a Northwest Washington coffee shop Saturday morning, an incident captured on video by numerous witnesses …. that showed the officers tackling him to the ground, holding him down and appearing to use a stun gun before driving him away in an unmarked black vehicle.” MAGA governors have diverted their national guardsmen (who may or may not be armed) to join this fascist spectacle.
Trump’s operation stems from his lifelong fixation with portraying urban black and brown men as a menace to “real Americans” (i.e., white people who buy his urban dystopian fantasy). He has not changed his racist tune since he took out full-page ads in four of the city’s major papers that led with the headline “Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” Those ads urged for the execution and help secured the convictions of five teenage boys, the later-exonerated Central Park Five.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)Daily Beast: Judge Jeanine Pirro Blows a Hole in Trump’s Crime Crackdown
AWKWARD
A policy shift from the DOJ undermines the president’s “crime emergency” in D.C.Alternet: Trump official demands ‘severe punishment’ for journalists over Washington Post report
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The Post reported Wednesday that “Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., according to numerous officials familiar with the operation.”
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Dean Blundell: Trump’s War on Black History: Why the Smithsonian (and Black History) Are in His Crosshairs
From railing that museums dwell “on how bad slavery was” to threatening their funding, the White House has turned centuries of suffering into poltical theater
You enter through the dark—down a ramp into the underground galleries of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
There, beneath the bright mall of Washington, sits a small wooden house: the Point of Pines cabin, carried from Edisto Island, South Carolina, and rebuilt plank by plank. The whitewashed boards and low hearth make history unavoidably physical. People once slept here, worked here, prayed here—inside a system designed to erase their humanity. This is what the museum’s “Slavery & Freedom” exhibition does so relentlessly well: it forces truth to stand in front of you.
That truth is exactly what the President says he wants less of.
(Dean Blundell more…)Al Jazeera: Trump says Smithsonian museums only cover ‘how bad Slavery was’ in US
The US President says a review of the national museums will be similar to those he has ordered for universities.
Daily Kos: Trump commands Smithsonian to pipe down on ‘how bad Slavery was’
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Daily Beast: Trump Ally Booed and Heckled for Defending the President at Town Hall
CROWD FAVORITE
The event marked her third town hall disaster in recent weeks.
(Daily Beast more…)Boing Boing: Angry crowd chants “Shame!” while Rep. Stefanik flees from stage
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Slate: How Democrats Should Actually Respond to Republicans’ Attempts to Rig Voting Maps
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This means that California’s maps would automatically respond to red states’ partisan gerrymanders. For example, if Texas implemented its new and more aggressive partisan gerrymander, California’s new and automatic redistricting system would respond in kind. The result would be that, as much as practically possible, California’s system would neutralize Texas’ partisan gerrymander.So far, this might sound like exactly what Newsom has proposed. But there is a critical difference. The problem with the governor’s approach is that because it is an ad hoc political response to Texas’ gerrymander, it virtually guarantees a continued race to the bottom. Texas will be heavily gerrymandered, and so will California. And so will the next red state and the next blue state, and potentially on and on. That’s not the best outcome we can hope for. Representation of Democrats in Texas and Republicans in California matters too. We should aim for a national map without partisan gerrymandering in either red states or blue states.
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Slashdot: Electricity Prices Are Climbing More Than Twice as Fast as Inflation
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The Energy Department projects data centers will consume more electricity than residential customers for the first time in 2026. Natural gas costs for power generation rose 40% in the first half of 2025 compared to 2024, and the department expects another 17% increase next year. Natural gas generates more than 40% of U.S. electricity. One in six households currently struggles to pay electric bills. The federal government provides $4 billion annually in energy assistance for low-income families.Further reading: Big Tech’s AI Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone.
Fast Company: Trump’s bill kills clean energy tax credits. Here’s exactly how much money Big Oil gave to Republican backers
The industry gave millions to 15 Republican lawmakers whose states have major renewable energy sectors. It’s now getting back millions in tax breaks.
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ProPublica: RFK Jr. Vowed to Find the Environmental Causes of Autism. Then He Shut Down Research Trying to Do Just That.
(ProPublica more…)Your Local Epidemiologist: Long Covid research roundup
What have we learned since last year?
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Sarah Jones & Jason Easley: Former Attorney General Barr Could Not Clear Trump Of Epstein Wrongdoing
Former Trump Attorney General William Barr stated during his deposition before the House Oversight Committee that he could not clear Donald Trump of wrongdoing in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
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