curated news excerpts & citations
Jennifer Rubin: Hard Truths
A movement is more than one man
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The news shocked and stunned millions of people who had long considered Chávez a hero, including all of us at The Contrarian. We fully associate with the comments from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, LULAC, the UFW, and The Feminist Majority, as well as innumerable progressive politicians and organizations who have denounced his behavior while expressing support for and solidarity with the survivors. We agree with calls to remove Chavez’s name from commemorations, streets, buildings, etc.
However, the farmworkers movement is not defined by an individual — and never has been. As Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi noted, “A movement is about the people — not any one person — and its strength lies in the values it upholds. We can honor the farmworker movement — and the generations who sacrificed to build it — while also confronting painful truths. No legacy is above accountability.” While we are shaken to our core, we continue to honor the tens of thousands of farm labor activists.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
NY Times: Revelations of Cesar Chavez’s Abuse Spur a Widespread Outcry
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Adam Kinzinger: Don’t Lose Heart: A Blueprint for Staying in the Fight
The most important battle we face isn’t in Congress, in the courts, or at the ballot box. It’s the one happening right now inside each of us.
The Chaos Is the Strategy
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Make Room at the Table
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What You Can Do, Starting Today
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Liz Dye: Trump wants to bribe energy companies to kill wind energy
Donald Trump hates clean energy.
Obviously, the president hates lots of things: Immigrants, the media, NATO, and sound monetary policy, to name just a few.
But of all Trump’s many grievances, none is quite so petty and pathological as his loathing of wind energy.
The attacks on solar panels and electric cars can be chalked up to his belief in the holy gospel of hydrocarbons. But the windmill thing is personal.
(Liz Dye more…)NY Times: Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms
MIT Technology Review: What do new nuclear reactors mean for waste?
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Paul Krugman: Donald Trump, Petropresident
Follow the Gulf oil money
Why did Donald Trump attack Iran? Did he believe that a quick victory would boost his poll ratings? Was he looking for a way to change the subject from the Epstein files and affordability? Was he seduced into war by the Israeli government?
The answer, surely, is all of the above. Bad decisions don’t have to have a single explanation. In fact, debacles on the scale of what we’re now experiencing usually have multiple causes.
…But what really stands out is the centrality of oil money from the Persian Gulf, money that has been crucial in two areas: Trump’s international economic schemes and his personal enrichment.
(Paul Krugman more…)
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El Mundo: The three traps for Trump in the Strait of Hormuz: ‘Kill box’ for tankers, payment in yuan, and a maze of islands
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Joyce Vance: We Have Not Forgotten About The Epstein Files
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 18, 2026
Back on February 23, Daniel Ruetenik, Pat Milton, and Cara Tabachnick of CBS News reported on a newly uncovered document in the Epstein files showing that beginning in December 2010 under the Obama administration, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was running an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and fourteen other people for drug trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering.
…He noted that Epstein and the fourteen co-conspirators were never charged for drug trafficking or financial crimes, and wrote: “I am concerned that the DEA and DOJ during the first Trump Administration moved to terminate this investigation in order to protect pedophiles.” He also noted that the heavy redactions in the document appear to go far beyond anything authorized by the Epstein Files Transparency Act and that since the document was not classified, “there is no reason to withhold an unredacted version of this document from the U.S. Congress.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Wired: He Built the Definitive Epstein Database—and It Consumed His Life
The data engineer started as a casual reader of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Then he became obsessed, and built the most extensive network graph of the sexual predator’s shadowy world.
(Wired more…)
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NY Times: Firm That Planned Trump’s Jan. 6 Rally Received No-Bid Contracts
This administration has given the company, staffed by the president’s allies, multimillion-dollar contracts it was guaranteed to win.
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Fox News: How surveillance tech led police to accuse the wrong person
A porch theft accusation in Colorado shows how surveillance tools like Flock cameras and phone data can both harm and help your defense
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Independent: Journalist arrested by ICE doesn’t have First Amendment rights, according to Trump’s DOJ
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Skander Garroum: What is powering AI?
You need one year to build a data center. You need seven years to connect it to the grid. Something doesn’t add up.
(Skander Garroum more…)
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Decoding Fox News: Fox News and the Land of Iranian War Make Believe
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox New for the week ending 3/15/26
Joseph Humire & Generals’ testimony about troops at polling places.
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- 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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