curated news excerpts & citations
Contrarian and Indivisible Project: NO KINGS Coalition Responds to Escalating Brutality and Authoritarianism
No Kings Coalition Announces Immediate Efforts and Builds Towards Next National Mass Mobilization on March 28
(Contrarian and Indivisible Project more…)
Paul Krugman: Minnesota is the Beginning of an American Color Revolution
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A little background: a “color revolution” is a widely used term for the nonviolent uprisings that overthrew some of the autocratic regimes that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The most famous of these uprisings was the 2004 Orange Revolution that brought democracy to Ukraine. Ukrainian democracy has had its ups and downs since then, but it’s still standing — and still standing up to Russia’s brutal attempts at conquest.
(Paul Krugman more…)
Charlie Sykes: The Little Platoons That Humbled Trump
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From long experience, we’ve learned that skepticism is always in order — and because Trump hateshateshates looking weak, the whole “new tone” could unravel within hours.
But we should also take a moment to celebrate a rather extraordinary victory, even if it is only a temporary one.
(Charlie Sykes more…)
Steward Beckham: What Happened to Ilhan Omar Was Inevitable
How racism becomes the harbinger of a superpower choosing to decline.
zeteo: Trump and His Party Have Put Ilhan Omar in Danger for Years
Marisa Kabas: Crackdown
The people of Minnesota, the rest of the country has learned these past few weeks, just keep coming back. Their relentlessness offers a blueprint for how to react when ICE inevitably arrives somewhere new to stir up trouble where there was none; how to look violence dead in the eye and say not in my town; how to provide aid laterally when you know those at the top won’t be passing any down.
Headlines call it a “crackdown” on immigration and a “clash” between the government and “protesters,” when in reality it’s murderous occupying forces being confronted by people who just want to live free of their violence.
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – January 28, 2026
Federal agents continue to rain terror on Minneapolis, Minnesota, and other U.S. cities including Portland and Lewiston, Maine. That violence has made it crystal clear that the goal of attacking immigrants is not simply to create a white nation; it is also to terrorize Americans into accepting the domination of MAGA Republicans.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Jennifer Rubin: Why, for Too Many, Alex Pretti’s Murder Counted More
We must find sympathy for those unlike ourselves
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Why only now is the status quo teetering?There are both benign and not-so-benign reasons.
As to the former, the multiplicity of murders (followed by the same old lies and transparent efforts to cover up misconduct) have eroded what remains of the regime’s credibility. …
Sadly, a larger swath of Americans — white men and gun-owners, for example — might only have been stirred when the victim turned out to be someone who closely resembled themselves and people they know.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
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Brian Beutler: Alex Pretti, MAGA, And The Public Meaning Of Masculinity
If you’d rather be like them than like him, it’s time to take a look in the mirror…
…But to the extent that anyone who aligned with MAGA after 2020 is still persuadable, I hope they’ll stop and think about whom they’ve chosen as their avatars, and then contrast those people with Pretti.
(Brian Beutler more…)
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NY Times: The Height of Close-Combat Weaponry Is on This Woman’s Doorstep
Images of the immigration crackdowns in Minneapolis and across the United States have been likened to those from the country’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The helmets, camouflage and tactical gear all look straight from the battlefield.Nowhere is that more apparent than in a single photo taken on Jan. 11 by John Locher of The Associated Press. It captures a line of federal agents on the doorstep of a woman’s home, rifles in hand.
Upon closer inspection, the agents’ equipment tells its own story. Their gear is the physical manifestation of decades of war, fine-tuned and perfected for close-quarters killing over myriad operations in faraway lands but now wielded in broad daylight in American cities. This type of equipment is often reserved for SWAT and hostage rescue units.
(NY Times more…)
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Morgaan Sinclair, Ph.D.: How many pardoned Jan. 6 criminals did ICE hire? I want an answer to this question! NOW.
J.D. Vance dog-whistled the Manosphere in the run-up to the election. In prison, they all knew they’d be pardoned if Trump won. Racist and misogynist, the Proud Boys et al. may have found a new home.
(Morgaan Sinclair, Ph.D. more…)
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Joyce Vance: Minnesota and Elsewhere
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“Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. The extent of ICE’s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated. This list is confined to orders issued since January 1, 2026, and the list was hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges. Undoubtedly, mistakes were made, and orders that should have appeared on this list were omitted. This list should give pause to anyone—no matter his or her political beliefs—who cares about the rule of law. ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence…ICE is not a law unto itself. ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated.”
(Joyce Vance more…)
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Ken Klippenstein: ICE’s Secret Watchlists of Americans
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Two senior national security officials tell me that there are more than a dozen secret and obscure watchlists that homeland security and the FBI are using to track protesters (both anti-ICE and pro-Palestinian), “Antifa,” and others who are promiscuously labeled “domestic terrorists.”
…As part of its new effort to support its operations in places like Minneapolis and Los Angeles, the Homeland Security Department, working with the Justice Department, has started more methodically tracking what it calls “aggressive protesters.” According to one senior official, this is a new designation the agency uses to describe the supposed threat posed by people on the streets.
Both Good and Pretti were considered aggressive protesters; in Good’s case, for criticizing ICE officers while operating a vehicle; and in Pretti’s case, getting up close to immigration officers while filming them.
(Ken Klippenstein more…)
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People’s World: Nurses lead nationwide demands to abolish ICE
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Texas Tribune: Lawmakers, protesters demand release of 5-year-old held at Texas immigration detention center
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Al Jazeera: Trump’s troop deployment in US cities cost almost $500m in 2025
United States President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops in major US cities in 2025 cost nearly $500m, according to the latest estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Trump last year activated more than 10,000 National Guard soldiers and active-duty marines and sent them to Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Memphis, Portland, Chicago and New Orleans in what the president claimed was an effort to deter crime and protect federal immigration enforcement.
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Register: Challenger at 40: The disaster that changed NASA
How a cold morning, failed O-rings, and flawed decision-making led to tragedy
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NPR: The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules
The Trump administration has overhauled a set of nuclear safety directives and shared them with the companies it is charged with regulating, without making the new rules available to the public, according to documents obtained exclusively by NPR.
…NPR obtained copies of over a dozen of the new orders, none of which is publicly available. The orders slash hundreds of pages of requirements for security at the reactors. They also loosen protections for groundwater and the environment and eliminate at least one key safety role. The new orders cut back on requirements for keeping records, and they raise the amount of radiation a worker can be exposed to before an official accident investigation is triggered.
Over 750 pages were cut from the earlier versions of the same orders, according to NPR’s analysis, leaving only about one-third of the number of pages in the original documents.
(NPR more…)
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James Eagle: China’s trade surplus with Europe is becoming entrenched
China’s trade surplus with Europe is no longer a temporary distortion caused by the pandemic or supply chain disruption. It is becoming a structural feature of the global economy.
(James Eagle more…)
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Liz Dye: The investigation is the coverup
Trump’s “pivot” on Pretti is just a head fake.
Judd Legum and Noel Sims: How legacy media fell for Trump’s fake “pivot” in Minnesota
Thom Hartmann: The Most Dangerous Moment Is When Authoritarians Seem to Compromise
Trump’s recalibration follows the same step-back, step-forward playbook used by Orbán, Putin, and every modern strongman…
Bulwark: Trump Can’t Stop Backing Down
Where the bully encounters strength, he withdraws. Constantly.
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Rebecca Solnit: “Past Performance Is Not Indicative of Future Results”: On Immigration and Assumptions
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One of the axes I grind regularly is about and against habits of thought and unquestioned assumptions that interfere with clear perception. One habit I see all too often is the assumption that the future will be an extension of some obvious force in the present: that force will continue to enlarge in power and impact or just stay steady.
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
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NY Times: Bucking a Global Trend, Spain Offers Undocumented Migrants a Legal Way to Stay
The measure, unexpectedly approved, comes as other countries are cracking down on immigration.
(NY Times more…)
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Your Local Epidemiologist: Shared decision-making, informed consent, and the rhetoric of false empowerment
What these medical terms mean and how they’re fueling confusion about vaccines
National Memo: At Kennedy’s CDC, Measles Fatalities Are Now Just ‘A Cost Of Doing Business’
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Ellie Leonard: Jeffrey Epstein’s Real Lawyer Was Jeffrey Epstein
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.- January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
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
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