curated news excerpts & citations
Closer to the Edge: Jessica Denson
Her name first appeared in the public record as a plaintiff, not a pundit. In 2016, she worked inside Trump’s campaign. When she reported harassment and discrimination, the campaign responded with a $1.5 million arbitration demand designed to bury her. It didn’t. Representing herself, she challenged the campaign’s NDA, won, and freed hundreds of former staffers who’d been forced into silence.
That case could have been her curtain call. Instead, it became her starting gun.
In 2025, Denson has remained one of the most persistent presences in Washington’s ongoing standoff between power and accountability. Her activism isn’t built on outrage—it’s built on procedure, law, and follow-through. She’s been in the streets since January: organizing, lobbying, and pressing lawmakers to enforce the Constitution they swore to defend.
(Closer to the Edge more…)
Isaac Saul: Democrats sweep the 2025 elections.
Jennifer Rubin: Democrats in ‘Array’
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In the next year, Democrats face multiple tasks.
- First, Democrats would be wise to put the elections in context. …
- Second, Republicans have already telegraphed their silly line that New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani represents the entire Democratic Party. Mamdani got roughly 1 million votes and was elected by one of the most liberal cities in America. Faced with the alternative of a corrupt opponent backed by Trump and other billionaires, liberals preferred a socialist. Two moderate women with national security backgrounds won the governorships of two populous states with a combined total of approximately 3.5 million votes, including over 55% of self-identified independent voters. So, which branch of the party dominated Tuesday?
- Third, many consultants, pundits, and operatives insist Democrats need a “positive message.” …
- Finally, governing still matters. …
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Thomas B. Edsall: Why It Would Be Trump’s Honor to Pay for Food Stamps
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While Trump has signaled that he will at least partially accede to court orders requiring him to fund SNAP, Democrats and other advocates of the poor should not hold their breath. Back at the end of the first Trump administration, Trump and Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, tried to cut more than $180 billion over 10 years from the program; their proposals were dropped once Joe Biden took office. The Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” did SNAP no favors — in effect, it cut that same $180 billion plus from the program.In other words, Trump and Vought have not given up their dream of gutting what Trump derisively calls “Democrat programs,” and SNAP, Medicaid and Obamacare rank high on that list. The reality is that despite some of the new proposals coming from their side of the aisle, neither Trump, Vought nor many other Republicans seem to recognize that it is no longer accurate to describe these programs as “Democrat programs.” Whether they will pay a political price for their ignorance is another question.
(Thomas B. Edsall more…)
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Rebecca Solnit: Protect Our Neighbors: The Journey of a Sign
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And we must remember how many people are now living in fear, afraid to speak, sometimes afraid to leave their home, afraid to go to work, afraid to walk down the street or go to the store or school. It’s important to remember that lives are wrecked not just when they’re actually seized by ICE, but when they live under the threat that this could happen to them, as tens of millions now are. Seized by fear, and act on it by giving up some of their freedom and confidence, some of their ability to participate in society as students or workers, as churchgoers and community members. Timothy Snyder famously wrote, immediately after the 2016 election, “do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.” But I would assume he means those of us who have secure status in this country, people like him, people like me (and while Snyder is now based in Toronto, he continues to speak up in the US). Power has taught immigrants, refugees, and those who resemble them what it can do.
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
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Michele Hornish: You, Too, Can Lift A Car: Life Demands Courage
You’re more powerful than you think
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Jay Kuo: Not Everything Can Be An Emergency
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Verge: Why Trump hijacked the .gov domain
Donald Trump’s vicious, meme-driven ethos has started seeping into the US government’s official internet presence.
(Verge more…)
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Sarah Jones & Jason Easley: Jamie Raskin Releases Evidence That Trump Killed An Investigation Into Epstein’s Co-Conspirators
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Joyce Vance: Prosecutors Can Indict a Ham Sandwich, But Can They Convict?
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Is this case a good use of federal resources? Might the community U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office serves feel better served if they’d been used, for instance, to complete the investigation into border czar Tom Homan, who reportedly accepted a $50,000 bribe for steering government contracts to businessmen instead? Do we need to bring in the feds over a thrown sandwich? Perhaps the loss of the defendant’s job suffices as punishment.
(Joyce Vance more…)
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Decoding Fox News: Trump’s CBS 60 Minute Interview – The Cutting Room Floor
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
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – November 4, 2025
Trump’s social media account announced that the White House intends to ignore the court’s order, but hours later White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “the administration is fully complying with the court order.”
Myah Ward, Alex Gangitano, and Dasha Burns of Politico reported last Friday that Trump expected the Democrats to fold and accept Republican terms to reopen the government no more than ten days into a shutdown. His frustration that they are not doing as he expected is showing, especially as more Americans blame Trump and MAGA Republicans for the shutdown than blame Democrats. Last week, Trump demanded that Senate majority leader John Thune of South Dakota end the Senate filibuster, enabling the Republicans to pass the House Republicans’ continuing resolution with a simple majority vote. This was a nonstarter, since the filibuster has become central since 2009 to the ability of Republicans to block most Democratic legislation.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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