Music: Bremer/McCoy — ‘Bjerget’
Efficiency − or empire? How Elon Musk’s hostile takeover could end government as we know it
Elon Musk, right, has moved to take the reins of key pieces of the U.S. government. Brandon Bell/Getty Images By Allison Stanger, Middlebury Elon Musk’s role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, is on the surface a dramatic effort to overhaul the inefficiencies of federal bureaucracy. But beneath the rhetoric of cost-cutting and regulatory streamlining lies a troubling scenario. Musk has been appointed what is called a “special government employee” in charge of…
Musk operatives granted access to confidential info about X’s competitors
Caleb Ecarma and Judd Legum write: With Elon Musk’s social media platform X poised to launch a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment services, Musk’s associates have been granted access to confidential information about X’s competitors, an official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) told Musk Watch. Staffers at the United States Department of Government Efficiency Service, or DOGE, a White House body led by Musk, embedded themselves at the CFPB late last week. Politico reported on Saturday that Office…
Judge rules the White House failed to comply with court order
The New York Times reports: A federal judge on Monday said the White House has defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump White House was disobeying a judicial mandate. The ruling by Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island federal court ordered Trump administration officials to comply with what he called “the plain text” of an edict he issued on Jan. 29. That…
The courts blocked Trump’s federal funding freeze. Agencies are still withholding money
By Jake Pearson and Anjeanette Damon This story was originally published by ProPublica When the federal courts first blocked the Trump administration’s funding freeze, Jessyca Leach was cautiously optimistic. For days, the pause had prevented her from accessing the money she needs for her Phoenix health clinic to serve thousands of at-risk people, most of them poor and many of them members of the LGBTQ+ community. Things had gotten so bad that she had to lay off three employees and…
Trump removes Government Ethics Office director while promoting bribery
Politico reports: President Donald Trump has removed the director of the Office of Government Ethics, an official tasked with ensuring government workers comply with conflict of interest and ethics requirements. David Huitema was confirmed by the Senate in December for a five-year term. His dismissal was announced in one sentence on the OGE website, stating that the office had been notified that Trump is removing him as director. The website also said OGE will revert to an acting director: Shelley…
Trump wants to force Palestinians out of Gaza permanently
The New York Times reports: President Trump said the nearly two million Palestinians that he wants to displace from the Gaza Strip would not be allowed to return to the territory under his hypothetical plan to rebuild it. In a clip from a Fox News interview scheduled to air on Monday, Mr. Trump elaborated on his recent proposal for an American-led takeover of Gaza. Asked if Palestinians who would be removed from the territory while it is cleared would have…
I saw illegality and complicity with war crimes. That’s why I quit the UK Foreign Office
Mark Smith writes: My name is Mark Smith. I am a former diplomat and policy adviser at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). I spent my career working in the Middle East directorate and serving in the Arab world. As a lead officer on arms sales policy, I was responsible for assessing whether the UK government’s arms sales adhered to legal and ethical standards under domestic and international law. In August 2024, I resigned over the UK government’s refusal…
Music: Tigran Hamasyan — ‘Postlude’
Silicon Valley has been moving toward ‘technofascism’ for decades
Becca Lewis writes: An influential Silicon Valley publication runs a cover story lamenting the “pussification” of tech. A major tech CEO lambasts a Black civil rights leader’s calls for diversifying the tech workforce. Technologists rage against the “PC police”. No, this isn’t Silicon Valley in the age of Maga. It’s the tech industry of the 1990s, when observers first raised concerns about the rightwing bend of Silicon Valley and the potential for “technofascism”. Despite the industry’s (often undeserved) reputation for…
Musk is treating the U.S. like a startup where he’s the CEO
Brian Barrett writes: It feels like no one should have to say this, and yet we are in a situation where it needs to be said, very loudly and clearly, before it’s too late to do anything about it: The United States is not a startup. If you run it like one, it will break. The onslaught of news about Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government’s core institutions is altogether too much—in volume, in magnitude, in the sheer chaotic…
Vance and Musk question judges’ authority over Trump, pushing U.S. towards constitutional crisis
NBC News reports: Legal and constitutional experts warned Sunday that the United States could be headed toward a “constitutional crisis” or a “breakdown of the system” after Vice President JD Vance suggested judges don’t have jurisdiction over President Donald Trump’s “legitimate power.” “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also…
The recruitment effort behind Elon Musk’s DOGE wrecking crew
Wired reports: The establishment of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) relied on a recruitment campaign carried out, in part, by young software engineers fanning out across online chat groups and Discord servers, according to three sources and chat logs reviewed by WIRED. Some of the engineers are associated with data analytics firm Palantir or its cofounder and board of directors chair—and Musk ally—Peter Thiel. As DOGE staffers—many of them young and with little or no government experience—continue…
Trump’s gutting of foreign aid is a threat to global health
Jeremy Youde writes: In its chaotic first few weeks, one of the new Trump administration’s many targets has been global health. With a few strokes of a Sharpie, President Donald Trump halted nearly all U.S. foreign assistance programs, including those for global health, and started the process of pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization. Trump made a range of false claims about foreign aid to support his moves, including spreading the lie that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sent…
Trump enrages Christian MAGA by hiring ‘prosperity’ pastor for White House
The Daily Beast reports: President Donald Trump angered some of his Christian supporters on Friday when he named a televangelist who even some conservative evangelicals have labeled a “heretic” as part of his White House administration. The president signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office and chose Pastor Paula White-Cain, his ally and spiritual advisor, to lead it. White-Cain, 58, is a megachurch preacher from Florida who has endorsed biblical interpretations that some evangelical Christians believe go…
Former OpenAI safety researcher brands pace of AI development ‘terrifying’
The Guardian reports: A former safety researcher at OpenAI says he is “pretty terrified” about the pace of development in artificial intelligence, warning the industry is taking a “very risky gamble” on the technology. Steven Adler expressed concerns about companies seeking to rapidly develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), a theoretical term referring to systems that match or exceed humans at any intellectual task. Adler, who left OpenAI in November, said in a series of posts on X that he’d had…