curated news excerpts & citations
Borowitz: Mark Kelly Records Video Telling Bartenders They Are Allowed to Refuse Hegseth’s Orders
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Senator Mark Kelly released a new online video on Thursday reminding the nation’s bartenders that they are allowed to refuse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s orders.
Staring stonily into the camera, the former astronaut warned that, if Hegseth appears to be above the legal blood-alcohol limit, any additional drink request would constitute an illegal order.
(Borowitz more…)
Jonathan Larsen: U.S. Military Surrenders to El Paso
Federal forces quickly established air superiority over the outmatched enemy stronghold but then fled anyway
Heather Delaney Reese: The president’s condition is deeply alarming
Daily Beast: MAGA Names Call for Bondi to Resign After Wild Congressional Meltdown
Jennifer Rubin: The Epstein Cover-up Must End
Trump knows more than he has ever let on
Marcy Wheeler: Five Ways the Attorney General Confirmed She Is Engaged in an Epstein Cover Up
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Jess Piper: Voter Passport
This is embarrassing to admit, but I don’t have a passport. I have never needed a passport. I have never traveled outside of the United States. International travel is expensive.
I represent about 50% of the country. About half of Americans do not have a passport. …
…If passed, the SAVE Act would require a voter to prove citizenship. Easy, right? No, not that easy. Let’s use my experience as an example of how difficult it is to get a Real ID.
For reference, I am an American citizen who has never traveled out of the country and who has lineage in the states since the 1700s.
(Jess Piper more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – February 12, 2026
In a ceremony at the White House yesterday, surrounded by coal industry leaders, lawmakers, and miners, President Donald J. Trump was presented with a trophy that calls him “the undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal.” At the event, Trump signed an executive order directing the Defense Department to buy billions of dollars of power produced by coal and decried “the Radical Left’s war on the industry.” Anna Betts of The Guardian noted that Trump also announced the Department of Energy will spend $175 million to “modernize, retrofit, and extend” the life of coal-fired power plants in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Kentucky.
As Lisa Friedman pointed out in the New York Times last month, the United States has been the largest polluter since the start of the industrial era, but emissions of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, have been declining since 2007. Trump maintains that climate change is a “hoax” and has withdrawn the U.S. from the main global climate treaty. Since he took office in January 2025, U.S. emissions have increased 1.9% largely because of the renewed use of coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency revoked the scientific finding that has been the basis for regulating emissions from cars and power plants since 2009. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Bloomberg: Trump’s Changes to EPA Will Have Long-Lasting Impacts
The Trump administration is set to announce today that it’s rescinding the justification for a swath of climate regulations. In stark contrast, new data shows that China, the world’s largest polluter, has started to rein in carbon dioxide emissions.
(Bloomberg more…)
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Politico: Tariff votes hand Republicans an unwanted referendum on affordability
A small GOP rebellion is unleashing a flood of House votes on President Donald Trump’s tariff policies in the coming weeks — handing Democrats a powerful tool to hammer Republicans on affordability issues ahead of the November midterms.
House leaders had shielded their most vulnerable Republicans from politically explosive votes on tariffs for more than a year, but now the fallout is reverberating on Capitol Hill and in tough battleground races around the country.
(Politico more…)
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Austin Chronicle: Despite Pressure From Abbott, AISD Students Keep Up Anti-ICE Protests
On Friday, Feb. 6, at about 2pm, hundreds of students at Clint Small Middle School walked out of class with backpacks on and posters in their hands to protest the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country, “including the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents,” according to their student-released statement.
“We are skipping our lessons to teach you one,” one student’s sign read.
(Austin Chronicle more…)
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Politico: The quiet force influencing Trump’s and Vance’s confrontational Europe policy
Andy Baker’s only moment in the spotlight came by accident — when, in March, Vice President JD Vance named him as his point-person in the administration’s infamous leaked group chat about the Houthi strikes in Yemen.
His low public profile belies his growing influence.
(Politico more…)
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
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
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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