curated news excerpts & citations
Joyce Vance: Bloody Sunday
Today marks the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. The Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, march for voting rights was halted by Alabama state troopers and sheriffs who tear-gassed and beat the marchers. A trooper beat Future Georgia Congressman John Lewis in the head with a nightstick.
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Brutality no longer outrages some Americans. They watch immigrants rounded up, zip-tied, frog marched into El Salvadoran prisons, and assaulted by federal agents in the process of detaining them. They read about people herded into facilities where there are bugs in the food and they sleep on concrete floors. They watch footage of American citizens being shot on the streets of Minneapolis and learn that an agency covered up the shooting death of a Texas man for a year. And they are unmoved.
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Earlier this week, we attacked a girls’ school. The Wall Street Journal reported that, “U.S. military investigators think American forces likely were responsible for a strike that killed dozens of children at a girls elementary school in Iran, a U.S. official said. …
Today, Trump was asked about the attack and who was responsible. He answered with a lie. He said Iran was responsible. Even Pete Hegseth couldn’t back that up. Standing next to the president, he said the attack was still “under investigation.”
(Joyce Vance more…)
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Marisa Kabas: Why now is the time to be loudly anti-war
We don’t need the clarity of hindsight to know war in Iran—or anywhere—will end in physical, moral and financial ruin.We don’t need the clarity of hindsight to know war in Iran—or anywhere—will end in physical, moral and financial ruin.
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Morgaan Sinclair, Ph.D.: Mojtaba Khomenei chosen as Iran’s new Supreme Leader
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- In the Israeli bombing of the late Ali Khomenei’s compound, his father was killed, his mother was killed, his own wife was killed, and one of his sons was killed. That is going to make him much more dangerous than he was before, for now there is blood vengeance involved.
- Note the black hat. That indicates he is descended DIRECTLY from the Prophet Mohammad. This gives him tremendous status in the country.
- He is an imam, but not one of stature.
- He’s got a lots and lots and lots of blood on his hands.
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The bottom line is that now, for the Iranian people and for everyone but Vladimir Putin and the Chinese, matters will be worse.
(Morgaan Sinclair, Ph.D. more…)
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Anne Applebaum: Collateral Damage
The impact of the war spreads beyond the Middle East
I don’t know what the White House expected when US and Israeli forces began bombarding Iran, but they seem not to have anticipated the global impact of their actions. The Iranian regime did not collapse quickly. Iranian drones and missiles his US bases and consultates, and also damaged civilian targets across the Gulf States, including luxury hotels, airports and energy infrastructure. The result: Hundreds of thousands of tourists and travellers got stuck because of closed airspace. Oil prices skyrocketed upwards. The gas market is in chaos, as the Qatari refinery that produces one-fifth of the world’s supply went offline.
The war also unexpectedly affects another conflict, farther away. One of the most urgent issues in Ukraine is the lack of air defense, and specifically ammunition for Patriot batteries, without which Ukraine cannot block Russian missile attacks. The Russians were aware of this shortage, which is why they targeted Ukraine’s electricity and power supply this winter, knowing they could do terrible damage. In the Middle East, this ammunition is more plentiful. According to President Zelensky, more than 800 Patriot missiles were used in just three days of fighting — more than Ukraine has received since February 2022.
The Russians can see this disparity, and surely understand that the US has made a clear decision: To launch a war of choice in the Middle East and not to defend Ukraine. …
(Anne Applebaum more…)
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Intercept: Sources Briefed on Iran War Say U.S. Has No Plans for What Comes Next
The Trump administration’s war on Iran is reckless and ill-planned, four government officials briefed on the attacks told The Intercept.
Even in classified briefings, Trump administration officials laid out no clear vision for the U.S. war on Iran or its aftermath, the sources said.
“The administration doesn’t have a clue. They do not have an actual, real rationale, endgame, or plan for the aftermath of this,” one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters, told The Intercept.
…One of the sources briefed on the attacks evoked the 1953 coup in which the U.S. and British governments toppled Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. The overthrow of Iran’s first and only democratically elected government ushered in more than two decades of dictatorship under U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his dreaded secret police, SAVAK. “Trump’s history only goes back as far as the revolution. But 1979 started in 1953. And this [war] goes back to that [coup],” the source told The Intercept, referencing the 1979 Iranian revolution.
(Intercept more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 8, 2026
Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump was among the dignitaries who attended the dignified transfer returning the remains of the six U.S. soldiers killed in the military action against Iran to the United States for burial. At the transfer, Trump wore a white USA baseball cap for sale in his campaign store.
…The producers at the Fox News Channel seemed to recognize that Trump’s USA hat at a dignified transfer looked like deliberate disrespect for those whose lives had been taken in the service of our country. They seemed to understand the gulf between the administration’s cartoonish approach to the war in Iran and the reality of war for those participating in it.
The official social media account of the White House has portrayed its military adventures in Iran as a movie, or a game, splicing images from what appear to be footage of U.S. military strikes with clips from adventure movies and video games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Undeterred by criticism, White House communications director Steven Cheung called for supporters to show their enthusiasm for one of the videos in comments below it.
…The administration’s approach to foreign affairs appears to be the logical outcome of two generations of a peculiar U.S. cowboy individualism. Since the 1950s, right-wing ideologues in the United States have embraced a fantasy world in which a hero cuts through the red tape of laws and government bureaucracy to do what he thinks is right. …
…The idea of white men acting for freedom and justice on their own, unhampered by a government that served Black Americans, people of color, and women, became a guiding image for the rising right wing beginning with Arizona senator Barry Goldwater in 1964. It found a home in the Republican Party with Ronald Reagan in 1980, as supporters took a stand against a federal government they insisted was redistributing the tax dollars of hardworking Americans to undeserving minorities and women.
That cowboy individualism spread into foreign affairs as well …
…The fantasy of those who embraced cowboy individualism was that if only they could have full sway, they would solve the world’s problems and keep Americans safe. But the conduct of the war is starting to illustrate that any claims of a moral code disappear when a leader exercises military might on a whim. According to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. will not be bound by any “stupid rules of engagement” and will rain down “[d]eath and destruction from the sky all day long. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Leqaa Kordia: I’m the Palestinian Who Has Been in ICE Detention for Almost a Year
On this International Women’s Day, nearly a year after I was first detained by ICE for speaking out for Palestinian freedom, my thoughts are filled with the women who, like me, are living – surviving – in immigration detention.
Women who wake up every morning unsure when they will see their families again.
Women who hold each other up, because sometimes it is the only support we have.
(Leqaa Kordia more…)
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truthout: These Women Exposed Prison Sexual Abuse. Now ICE Wants to Deport Them.
Federal protections against detention and deportation for sexual abuse survivors have deteriorated under Trump.
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Jess Piper: Rural Soldiers. Forever Wars.
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Timothy Snyder: The Desire for Terror
A purpose of the war on Iran might well be to provoke a terrorist attack inside the United States. This would provide Donald Trump with a pretext to try to cancel or “federalize” the coming Congressional elections.
Self-terrorism might not have been the initial aim; but as time goes by, and failures and atrocities mount, its appeal will grow. Trump could think that he has much to gain; the war itself makes terrorism more likely; there are plausible vectors of terror; and the United States has let down its defenses.
Trump has already telegraphed the move. We know that he is obsessed with the fall elections, which his party will almost certainly lose by spectacular margins, and that he fears the accordant loss of power. This is clear from his own statements and actions. In a social post right after starting the war, he claimed (wrongly) that Iran had tried to hurt his cause in past elections.
We lack any other explanation for the war, at least from the American side. …
…During the first year of this second Trump administration, defenses against all of these vectors of terrorism have been removed. There are three levels of the problem: policies have been changed; leadership is incompetent and experienced personnel are gone; and fiction about immigrants has displaced the actual problem of terrorism.
…We must anticipate, with sadness and resolution. We will be horrified, but we cannot be surprised, if there is a terrorist attack on the United States. If choose to be surprised, we co-create a moment that Trump will exploit to undo what remains of our democracy. If the unthinkable happens, it will happen because some of Trump’s people thought about it, some of them created the conditions for it, and some of them looked away. The responsibility for catastrophe will be theirs. And the responsibility for democracy will be ours.
(Timothy Snyder more…)
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Democracy Docket: Trump told us who he was in 2012. Will we finally believe him today?
In 2012, Barack Obama won reelection by a landslide. He garnered nearly 5 million more votes than Mitt Romney and won the Electoral College 332 to 206. Donald Trump was not pleased.
On election night, Trump called for “a revolution in this country!” Minutes later, he added, “We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!”
Finally, at 11:30 p.m., after the race was called for Obama, he posted something that feels eerily familiar today: “Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice!”
Trump has always been an election denier. He has always vilified voting. He has always started with lies, escalated to the courts, and ultimately embraced violent rhetoric.
(Democracy Docket more…)
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404 Media: CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements
An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar tools.
(404 Media more…)EFF: The Government Uses Targeted Advertising to Track Your Location. Here’s What We Need to Do.
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NewsNation: Judge voids layoffs at VOA, rules Kari Lake unlawfully ran US media agency
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: Dr. Ruth Report, 3/8/26
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NPR: Colossal Biosciences breeds controversy while trying to revive mammoths
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“Welcome to our labs,” says Ben Lamm, the co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences Inc., the “world’s first de-extinction and conservation company.”Colossal has the audacious goal of resurrecting extinct species like the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger and dodo bird. In the process, Colossal has been generating both excitement and disdain.
(NPR more…)
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Newsweek: Pentagon, FAA to Test Anti-Drone Lasers After Airspace Closures
The Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have agreed to conduct joint anti-drone laser tests in New Mexico, following two incidents in which military laser deployments forced sudden airspace closures over Texas — the latest flashpoint in a pattern of coordination failures between the two agencies.
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Allison Gill: Epstein/Trump Blackmail Discussion Reported to FBI Days Before Epstein’s Death
A newly released Form 302 interview just 3 days before Epstein’s death shows Epstein and Trump discussed blackmail, plus multiple 302s are still missing.
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Charlotte Clymer: This Isn’t About Politics or You or Me
(Charlotte Clymer more…)
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Onion: Trump To Americans: ‘You Won’t Have To Pay Your Son’s Cell Phone Bill When He Dies At War’
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Borowitz: Eric Trump Calls Ayatollah’s Son an Incompetent Moron who Only Got Position Through Nepotism
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
- 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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