curated news excerpts & citations
CNN: Trump’s tariff troubles might not be over
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To the extent the Trump team can justify the global tariffs under this [“balance of payments” deficit] authority, they’ll need to offer a completely different justification than they’ve been using to this point.
Or they’ll have to convince judges of a rather novel reading of Section 122 in which trade deficits are balance-of-payments deficits.
But on both counts, their past arguments could come back to haunt them.
Judd Legum: Trump’s new tariffs are just as illegal as his old tariffs
WSJ: The Unending Trump Tariff Mess
Section 122, the basis for his new tax plan, is a relic of a bygone age.
Paul Krugman: Attack of the Zombie Tariffs
Forbes: Trump’s Latest Tariff Flip-Flop: Opposing Refunds After Promising Them In Court
Dan Pfeiffer: Trump Stole Your Money. He Won’t Give It Back.
James Eagle: US job growth had its weakest year in decades, and it was not a recession
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Washington Post: As measles cases climb, these 9 diseases threaten comebacks
When it comes to infectious diseases, measles is “the canary in the coal mine,” one expert said.
- Pertussis
- Meningitis
- Polio
- Rotavirus
- RSV
- Tetanus
- Rubella
- Hepatitis B
- Diphtheria
Paul Offit: What RFK Jr.’s CDC Doesn’t Want You to Know
The CDC is withholding critical information about vaccine-preventable diseases from the American public. Why?
Your Local Epidemiologist: Endangerment Finding, bird flu, what counts as professional degrees, and more
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Atlantic: The Republican Party Has a Nazi Problem
How did the GOP become a haven for slogans and ideas straight out of the Third Reich?
Over the past few months, during his agency’s chaotic crackdowns in Chicago and Minneapolis, the U.S. Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino has worn an unusual uniform: a wide-lapel greatcoat with brass buttons and stars along one sleeve. It looks like it was taken right off the shoulders of a Wehrmacht officer in the 1930s. Bovino’s choice of garment is more than tough-guy cosplay (German media noted the aesthetic immediately). The coat symbolizes a trend: The Republicans, it seems, have a bit of a Nazi problem.
By this, I mean that some Republicans are deploying Nazi imagery and rhetoric, and espouse ideas associated with the Nazi Party during its rise to power in the early 1930s. A few recent examples: An ICE lawyer linked to a white-supremacist social-media account that praised Hitler was apparently allowed to return to federal court. Members of the national Young Republicans organization were caught in a group chat laughing about their love for Hitler. Vice President J. D. Vance shrugged off that controversy, instead of condemning the growing influence of anti-Semites in his party. (In December, at Turning Point USA’s conference, Vance said, “I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform.”)
(Atlantic more…)Gloria Horton-Young: When warnings are everywhere, and still no one moves
Munich, November 1923, smelled of damp wool and beer. The streets were slick with rain, the kind that seeps into cuffs and makes everything feel a degree more irritable. Inside the Bürgerbräukeller, a low-ceilinged beer hall thick with smoke and impatience, a man with a clipped mustache climbed onto a chair and began to shout.
He was not yet famous. He was not yet inevitable. He was loud, theatrical, angry, and persuasive in a way that made people lean forward without realizing they were doing it. His name was Adolf Hitler, and on that wet November night he attempted, clumsily and prematurely, to overthrow the German government.
(Gloria Horton-Young more …)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – February 24, 2026
Four years ago today, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin launched a “special military operation” involving dozens of missile strikes on Ukrainian cities before dawn. In 1994, in the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, Russia, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, agreed not to use military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, in exchange for Ukraine’s giving up the Soviet stockpile of nuclear weapons left in Ukraine after the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991. At the time, Ukraine had the third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. Russia violated that agreement when it invaded in 2014 after Ukrainians threw out Russia-backed oligarch Viktor Yanukovych.
Putin had been eyeing Ukraine’s industrialized region since at least summer 2016, when Russian operatives told then-candidate Donald J. Trump that they would help Trump win the White House if he would look the other way when Russia installed Yanukovych to govern a new “autonomous” republic there. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Timothy Snyder: On four years of war in Ukraine
Exactly four years of war, as of today. The cemeteries in Ukraine are larger than they should be. Fresh graves change the landscapes, as seen from a car or a train; the short spans of life, seen inscribed in stone, alter the reaction of the heart.
(Timothy Snyder more…)Adam Kinzinger: Ukraine Was Supposed to Fall. Instead, It Rewrote Modern Warfare.
Four years after the full-scale invasion, Ukraine still stands — and the West must decide whether it does too.
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Daily Beast: Trump Insiders Now Frantically Briefing Against the President’s War Plans
PANIC STATIONS
At least five major outlets received near-identical warnings from anonymous administration insiders.Al Jazeera: Trump hits out at reports that top general flagged risks of attacking Iran
US president slams reports that General Dan Caine warned him of risks of war with Iran as ‘100 percent incorrect’.
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404 Media: This App Warns You if Someone Is Wearing Smart Glasses Nearby
(404 Media more…)
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Eli McKown-Dawson: The Democratic primary is contentious, but the winner might get a shot at the sort of candidate who cost the GOP the Senate in 2022.
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Daily Beast: White House Blocks ICE Barbie and Alleged Lover’s Travel Chaos
The White House was reportedly forced to step in after Kristi Noem and her alleged lover Corey Lewandowski cooked up a plan that briefly sent travelers into a panic.
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electrek: Texas is about to overtake California in battery storage
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NPR: Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump
Mediaite: Epstein files: NPR finds 53 missing ‘Trump’ pages — the DOJ has no explanation
Newsmax: Allred to Newsmax: Epstein Accusers Can Be Sued for Naming Names
Dean Blundell: Six Storage Units Belonging To Jeffrey Epstein Have Been Discovered, Completely Untouched By ANYONE, Including The FBI
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Decoding Fox News: Fox News is Desperate to Keep the Trump Myth Alive as it Quickly Dies
A condensed overview of 19 hours of Fox News for the week ending 2/22/26
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Jennifer Rubin: We can do without the State of the Union.
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
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
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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