News Views

Saturday Pause

Top IRS lawyer, Kenneth Kies, to be pushed out following clashes with Trump administration over tax audits and its politicizing the tax system

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The fight for our Democracy continues, and, yes, it must intensify.

Truth

And it gets you elected…

Save The Press Act

THE TRACKER

Freedom of the Press Foundation

NY Times intelligence reporter subpoenaed by DOJ for grand jury testimony 10 July 2026

NYC journalist shoved, pepper-sprayed while covering NBA watch party

Trump administration, allies move to punish outlets during his second term

From the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, his appointees and allies in Congress joined him in taking steps to punish and intimidate news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting those efforts to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more in this regularly updated report:

March 14, 2025 | Trump says negative press coverage “illegal” during speech at DOJ

Jobs & Events

Audience Development Editor

MinnPost is hiring an Audience Development Editor, a senior newsroom leadership role that will own and drive audience growth strategy across the organization.

Salary: $85,000 – $95,000 per year

Apply here:

Color Of Change, in partnership with the National Education Association, invites you to watch “Educating for Equity: Brown v Board of Education 70 Years Later,” a short video featuring a range of young and older thought leaders talking about the groundbreaking case and the challenges facing our public education system today. Participants discuss what we need to do to protect education moving forward.

Issues

Constitutional America?

HERE ** HERE

As State Legislatures Grapple with the Abortion Issue … State Courts Should Prepare for an Increased Role – section headline from Do Pregnant Women Lose Legal Rights by Kenneth Jost in Editorial Research Reports, 28 July 1989.

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Black, Native, Latino-Americans are killed at a much higher rate than white Americans.

The Reading List

Intent to Destroy

Russia’s Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine

By Eugene Finkel

“Finkel’s Intent to Destroy spans several centuries, delving into some of the most heinous atrocities perpetrated by the Kremlin on Ukrainian lands. Despite the extensive scope, the text is rich in nuanced analysis, being equally valuable for scholars and accessible to readers unfamiliar with the region. What stands out most is Finkel’s approach: Rather than striving for unattainable objectivity, he bravely acknowledges his deep investment in producing responsible scholarship that is guided by honesty.”–Olesya Khromeychuk, director, Ukrainian Institute London

Book here:

The ReMindEr

Stuff

The Drunk House

Sopot, Poland

Exemplar

The New Normal? ~ The first tool of authoritarian regimes is always informational control—both in the gathering of information on the public through surveillance and the filtration of information to the public through owned media. In its early days, the Internet seemed to pose a challenge to authoritarian regimes, but with the advent of social media, we are watching the construction of architectures that fulfill the needs of every authoritarian regime: surveillance and information control. Authoritarian movements are possible only when the general public becomes habituated to—and numbed by—a new normal. Christopher Wylie.