curated news excerpts & citations
Lisa Needham: How Trump hacked the judiciary
His fake “emergencies” are pushing the country toward autocracy.
There’s no question that the Department of Justice is an absolute shambles under Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Trump, given that the latter basically dictates what the DOJ does now, and he’s a crumbling mess of capriciousness and id. However, whether by accident or design, the DOJ has hit on one strategy that works: exploiting little-known, sometimes even never-before-used laws as the basis for Trump’s constant states of emergency.
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Broadly speaking, Trump’s (mis)use of the law falls into four categories. Distressingly, at root, all of these excesses are about this administration’s abiding, unwarranted hatred for immigrants and for other countries, even when there are spillover effects for everyone else.
First, the administration has invoked a mishmash of domestic law to justify its international crimes in bombing boats in the Caribbean (and the country of Iran). Next, existing immigration laws have been cobbled together in a sort of unholy patchwork, an ever-shifting mess that allows the administration to pretend there’s some legal authority for what is nothing but xenophobia-fueled cruelty. Third, Trump relies on never- or seldom-used laws about presidential authority to deploy active-duty troops domestically, warping beyond reason any conception of state sovereignty. Finally, of course, there was the use of emergency powers to justify his sweeping, random, and retaliatory tariffs, which is where Trump received the biggest setback.
(Lisa Needham more…)
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Bulwark: Trump to America: Thank Me for Your Gas Bill
Higher prices = more money, according to the president.
Paul Krugman: Oil Prices Could Easily Go Much Higher
If the Strait stays closed, look out above
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I’ve seen some alarmists warn that a long war in the Gulf could lead to oil at $150 a barrel. That looks low to me.
(Paul Krugman more…)
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People’s World: China Chokehold: Long-term goal of the U.S. war on Iran
There’s an angle to the Iran War that the cable news anchors, retired generals-turned-commentators, and corporate-owned newspapers are barely talking about, if at all. …It has fallen to the far-right, anti-communist outlet The Epoch Times—the newspaper associated with the Falun Gong cult—to offer the truth about what the U.S. is up to. “A key strategic dimension of the Iran conflict,” wrote James Gorrie, a regular columnist for the pro-Trump paper in its March 13 issue, “involves Washington’s efforts to control and even restrict Iranian oil flows to China.”
(People’s World more…)Ken Klippenstein: The TV Generals Have Something to Sell You About Iran
These three kings are working for someone and it’s not us
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 13, 2026
Despite reports that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence that permits it to target U.S. forces in the Middle East, late last night the Trump administration lifted sanctions on shipments of Russian oil until April 11, permitting it to be sold to buyers around the world for the next month. The U.S., along with the rest of the Group of Seven (G7) nations with advanced economies, has maintained sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has been eager to get those sanctions dropped because oil sales will help the flailing Russian economy. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)![Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has denounced the investigation into his conduct as a political pressure campaign [File: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]](https://kewus.net/yesterday/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Powell.webp "Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has denounced the investigation into his conduct as a political pressure campaign [File: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]")
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Al Jazeera: US judge nixes two subpoenas against Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell
Judge James Boasberg ruled US prosecutors under Trump produced ‘essentially zero evidence’ to justify the subpoenas.
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Boasberg’s decision suggests otherwise, claiming that the Trump administration has led a campaign to investigate and prosecute political rivals.Boasberg pointed to examples including posts from Trump calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to file criminal charges against three of his critics: New York Attorney General Letitia James, US Senator Adam Schiff and former FBI director James Comey.
(Al Jazeera more…)
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Conversation: When GPS lies at sea: How electronic warfare is threatening ships and their crews
The war in Iran has dominated headlines with reports of airstrikes and escalating military activity. But beyond the immediate devastation, the conflict has also illuminated a quieter and rapidly growing danger: the vulnerability of ships, and the people who operate them, to disruption of their navigation systems.
Modern shipping depends heavily on GPS satellite navigation. When those signals are disrupted or manipulated, ships can suddenly appear to their navigators and to other ships to be somewhere they are not. In some cases, vessels have been shown jumping across maps, drifting miles inland or appearing to circle in impossible patterns. The risk is even higher in war zones, where ships could be misdirected into harm’s way.
(Conversation more…)
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Bill McKibben: Now comes the heat
Add it to the war, and maybe we have a teachable moment
I am (mostly) going to take a break from writing about the war for a day, because big though it is, it’s not quite the biggest thing happening on our planet. Or rather, its widespread destruction is taking place inside a larger context. Trump’s endless folly (first tariffs, now a desperately stupid war that has closed the Strait of Hormuz) has caused what everyone is beginning to understand is widespread economic damage. As the Times reported today, “this is the big one,” and “the fallout is rattling households and businesses in neighborhoods all over the globe.”On a stable planet, though, the damage might be contained and repaired; someone as incompetent as Trump (who is now describing his war as a “short excursion” and insisting that the Strait is in “very good shape”) will eventually (please God) burn himself out. Our bigger problem, as we’re about to be reminded, is that the planet is the furthest thing from stable. The backdrop is about to become the foreground, and with that the drama will shift once more.
…And here’s the kicker. All this is happening during a La Niña “cool phase” of the Pacific, something that will soon change.
(Bill McKibben more…)
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Jennifer Rubin: Reporting on Trump need not be wishy-washy
We do not spare legacy media outlets when they fall short in exposing Donald Trump’s cruelty, serial law-breaking, and lies. However, when reporters do step up to inform the public without equivocation and dismantle his deceitful excuses, they deserve credit. During this unconstitutional, reckless, and unnecessary war, repeatedly justified by exaggerations and outright lies, we have seen dogged reporters fulfill their mission as truth-tellers and protectors of democracy.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
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CNBC: The biggest names missing from the list of America’s top philanthropists
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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