curated news excerpts & citations
Paul Krugman: Is America Suffering from the “Resource Curse”?
Why the U.S. is the “last big petrostate” and why that’s bad for everyone
… David Roberts declared that “the US is basically aligning itself as the last big petrostate. We’re going to go down with the fossil fuel ship, and China is aligning itself as the first electrostate.”
Last month Rana Faroohar of the Financial Times basically said the same thing.
At this moment in history critiques of economic reliance on fossil fuels often focus on changing energy technology. At a time of rapid progress in renewable energy and general economic electrification, many argue, as Roberts does, that clinging to fossil fuels means missing the boat.
However, warnings that reliance on oil or other natural resources can be a trap have been prominent in economic discourse for decades. They were widespread long before the current renewable energy revolution began and were largely separate from concerns about the environment. The term resource curse, coined by Richard Auty in 1993, refers to a familiar though controversial proposition in development economics. It says that nations rich in natural resources, especially minerals including oil, tend to do worse in the long run than resource-poor nations. As we will see, the resource curse proposition claims that countries with economies heavily tilted towards natural resource extraction are afflicted by a tendency towards backwardness compared to countries less dependent on natural resource extraction.
Historically, most discussion of the resource curse has been concerned with small or poor nations. At this point, however, many are arguing that the United States faces some of the same issues and that our success in extracting oil and gas is actually hurting us.
(Paul Krugman more…)
Inside Climate News: Earth’s Energy Imbalance
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Tim Balk @ NY Times: 5 Takeaways From the ‘No Kings’ Rallies as the Midterms Heat Up
The war in Iran was a galvanizing force, but plenty of protesters focused on President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Senate candidates in several key races joined the crowds.
- The war seemed to galvanize younger voters.
- Trump’s immigration crackdown remains a focus.
- Dueling protests unfolded near Mar-a-Lago.
- Midterm candidates came out in force.
- Democrats found fresh fuel for their ‘No Kings’ slogan.
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Reanna Smith @ Daily Express: Iran turns the tables on Trump and sets their own chilling deadline
Iran has turned the tables on Donald Trump by issuing its own chilling deadline, warning that American universities could become “legitimate targets”.
For the second time this week, the US president extended an ultimatum for Iran to completely open the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping traffic as he claimed peace talks “are going very well.” But on Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard issued their own ultimatum, threatening to consider Israeli universities and branches of American universities in the region “legitimate targets,” state media reported.
“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment of (Iranian) universities by 12 o’clock Monday, March 30, in an official statement,” the Guard said in a statement. They urged the evacuations of American and Israeli educational facilities and told students and staff to stay at least one kilometer away.
(Reanna Smith @ Daily Express more…)
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Seth Stern @ Intercept: Pentagon Wants It to Be Illegal for Reporters to Ask “Unauthorized” Questions
The Trump admin wants to criminalize a key part of journalists doing their jobs — a broadside attack on a free press.
(Seth Stern @ Intercept more…)
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: Dr. Ruth Report, 3/29/2026
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- 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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