curated news excerpts & citations
Jim Palmer: The Gospel of Jane
The passing of a voice that taught us how to listen
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall
I read In The Shadow of Man in 2003 and it changed my life. This was Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking memoir that chronicles her early years studying wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. As a young boy I was fascinated by chimpanzees and gorillas. Jane introduced me to David Greybeard, Flo, and Fifi.
Jane Goodall, the pioneering primatologist and conservationist, passed away on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, at age 91 from natural causes while on a speaking tour in California.
Her legacy is monumental…
(Jim Palmer more…)
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Atlantic: Portland’s ‘War Zone’ Is Like Burning Man for the Terminally Online
There’s more absurdity than menace on the city’s streets—at least for now.
(Atlantic more…)
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Rebecca Solnit: Thoughts on an Uncivil War
An Army Called ICE Is Already Waging a Domestic War(This is a series of short essay-reports, beginning with the worst – ICE and attacks on immigrants and ending with the best – what we can do and a brief homage to Jane Goodall.)
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – October 3, 2025
The Trump account posted another AI video last night, as well. Set to the music of Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” the video shows Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance as band members—Trump on cowbell and Vance on drums—and features Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought as the Grim Reaper.
…Veterans of the U.S. national security community posting as The Steady State noted that “a president posting a video depicting his opponents as prey for the Grim Reaper and zombies outside the ‘unemployment office’ is the opposite of what we expect in a healthy democracy.”
…Russell Vought is not an elected official. He is best known for his contributions to Project 2025, a plan for gutting the U.S. government and installing a theocratic dictatorship. Project 2025 was so unpopular when it came to light last summer—only 4% of voters who knew about it wanted to see it enacted—that Trump insisted he had nothing to do with it. Trolling the American people with the idea that Congress has no power and Russell Vought is running the government to destroy it is an odd choice for a president who is already deeply unpopular.
But turning the government over to unelected individuals who ignore the law is a theme for this presidency. First, billionaire Elon Musk, who ran the “Department of Government Efficiency,” (DOGE) apparently with the help of Vought, impounded congressionally appropriated funds and fired government workers. Then reports surfaced that deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller was in charge of deportations, detentions, and the attempt to get rid of diversity programs, while also exercising influence over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Now Trump appears to be turning the reins of the government over to Russell Vought.
…On Monday, Hugo Lowell of The Guardian reported that Stephen Miller has directed the administration’s strikes on Venezuelan boats, taking precedence over secretary of state and national security advisor Marco Rubio.
…If Trump’s reliance on unelected bureaucrats to run his administration has led officials astray, another video posted by the Department of Homeland Security today seemed to offer a different window onto what the president is trying to accomplish. The video shows a bar with words in a font that mimics that of early video games, saying: “LIFE AFTER ALL CRIMINAL ALIENS ARE DEPORTED.” Behind the bar runs a series of images of the United States in the late 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. It shows Trump himself as a young man and what appears to be the Trump Tower in New York City in the early 1980s.
The nostalgic hope for reclaiming Trump’s glory days has tucked within it the McDonalds Mac Tonight moon image, an image used by white supremacists.
The world depicted in that video reflects the period before Trump met convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but that story is not going away. The House of Representatives was supposed to be back in session on Monday, but House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has sent members home until October 14. Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) noted today that Johnson appears to be delaying the swearing-in of newly elected Arizona representative Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat.
Grijalva says she will sign the discharge petition that will require the speaker to bring to the House floor a vote on instructing the Department of Justice to release the files from the investigation into Epstein’s actions, which needs only one more signature to force the vote.
Regarding Johnson’s declaration that the House will take another week away from the Capitol rather than coming back to negotiate a way to end the government shutdown and preserve Americans’ access to healthcare, Pingree asked: “Is this about the shutdown, or is this about the Epstein files?”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Daily Beast: Mike Johnson Gives Congress a Vacation During Shutdown
GIMME A BREAK
The House Speaker just gave Congress a week off while a key vote on the Epstein files hangs in the balance.Sarah Jones: Republican Senators to Attend Posh Resort Fundraiser During the Shutdown
Republican Senators are expected to attend a posh resort for a GOP fundraiser during the shutdown, which means they’re blaming Democrats while they’re not even in DC to vote to open the government.
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ProPublica: Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.
ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cuts.
(ProPublica more…)
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Sarah Jones: Thanks, Trump: Health Insurance Premiums Will Go Up to $24,535 [for] Some Couples Who Earn $85,000
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Independent UK: Where’s the missing $17 trillion? Lawmaker says Trump must reveal what he’s done with new investment bonanza he keeps boasting about
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Morgaan Sinclair, Ph.D.: A PolitiSage Backgrounder on Hegseth
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Jack Hopkins: The Wrecking Ball Named Russ Vought: How One Man Is Taking a Sledgehammer to Democracy
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Boing Boing: Trump spiritual advisor pleads guilty to child sexual abuse
Fox News: Texas megachurch founder to spend 6 months in jail for sexually abusing girl
RNS: Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris pleads guilty to child sex abuse charges
(RNS more…)
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