curated news excerpts & citations
Adam Chandler: SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more
On Friday afternoon, two separate federal judges ordered the Trump administration to continue funding SNAP—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program often referred to as “food stamps”—hours before benefits would lapse. …
… While right now it’s not clear whether the Trump Justice Department will appeal the ruling or if the funds can be dispersed quickly enough to avoid an interruption to benefits, let’s seize on this brief moment where SNAP is getting some attention to talk a little bit more about this program. It’s easily one of the most politicized, important, and misunderstood federal social programs that we have.
(Adam Chandler more…)
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Al Jazeera: Israel blocks vast majority of Gaza aid agreed under ceasefire deal
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NewsNation: US carries out new strike in Caribbean, killing 3 alleged drug smugglers
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Al Jazeera: Trump threatens to launch attacks in Nigeria over ‘killing of Christians’
Nigerian government denies US president’s claim of not stemming ‘horrible atrocities’ against Christians.
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Robert Reich: How to cope with Trump’s chaos
Trump is incapable of allowing tensions and stresses to ease without creating new ones.
…How should we cope with this Trump chaos?
Not by ignoring the news. This only plays into Trump’s playbook: He figures he can cause even more mayhem if we’re not paying attention.
Not by pretending that none of this matters. It does matter. Denial only weakens our resolve.
Certainly not by falling into despair or hopelessness. That’s what Trump and his ilk want more than anything. Hopelessness is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Then he wins it all.
We cope by becoming stronger.
(Robert Reich more…)
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Ezra Klein: This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism
Inside the Democratic Party — in its backrooms and its group chats, its conferences and its online flame wars — an increasingly bitter debate has taken hold over what the party needs to become to beat back Trumpism. Does it need to be more populist? More moderate? More socialist? Embrace the abundance agenda? Produce more vertical video?
The answer is yes, yes to all of it — but to none of it in particular. The Democratic Party does not need to choose to be one thing. It needs to choose to be more things.
(Ezra Klein more…)
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Mary Geddry: Wag the Dog, Fetch the Jet
How Kash Patel turned a taxpayer-funded love story into a national-security press stunt—and proved Kyle Seraphin right in record time.
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Bulwark: Drug Courts Save Lives. That May Not Save Them From Trump.
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The story of how Oldham turned around his life is, like all such stories, a complex one, rooted in everything from the strengths of his personality to some episodes of good fortune—which, he believes, was the work of God. But Oldham says he would not be around today if not for the drug court, which was one of hundreds that have popped up across the country over the last thirty-five years.They are part of what is widely considered one of the more promising initiatives to combat substance abuse, and they have benefited from substantial federal support. But now that support is in jeopardy, because the key agency administering it is being ripped to shreds by the Trump administration.
(Bulwark more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – November 1, 2025
Yesterday I wrote that President Donald J. Trump’s celebration of his new marble bathroom in the White House was so tone deaf at a time when federal employees are working without pay, furloughed workers are taking out bank loans to pay their bills, healthcare premiums are skyrocketing, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are at risk, that it seemed likely to make the history books as a symbol of this administration.
But that image got overtaken just hours later by pictures from a Great Gatsby–themed party Trump threw at Mar-a-Lago last night hours before SNAP benefits ended. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Joyce Vance: Good News: A Court Rejects Trump’s Effort To Suppress The Vote
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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