Music: Hvalfugl — ‘Regnen Falder Som Sne’
Donald Trump is a product of American sadness — not its remedy
If Donald Trump truly cared about the fentanyl crisis, he would focus on where the drug is being consumed rather than where it originates. Where sadness is endemic, there is hunger for relief, but instead of addressing the root causes of societal pain, Trump is implementing policies that will produce even more pain. In Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography (2014), Richard Rodriguez wrote: If you would understand the tension between Mexico and the United States that is playing out along our…
Why Trump’s tariffs can’t solve America’s fentanyl crisis
By Rodney Coates, Miami University Americans consume more illicit drugs per capita than anyone else in the world; about 6% of the U.S. population uses them regularly. One such drug, fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine – is the leading reason U.S. overdose deaths have surged in recent years. While the rate of fentanyl overdose deaths has dipped a bit recently, it’s still vastly higher than it was just five years ago….
Top FBI agent in New York vows to ‘dig in’ rather than capitulate during ongoing witch hunt
The New York Times reports: The top agent at the F.B.I.’s New York field office vowed in a defiant email to his staff to “dig in” after the Trump administration targeted officials involved in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack — and praised the bureau’s interim leaders for defending its independence. “Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted…
The young, inexperienced engineers helping Musk seize control of federal infrastructure
Wired Reports: Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college. Most have connections to Musk, and at least two have connections to Musk’s longtime associate Peter Thiel, a cofounder and chair of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy. WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the…
Trump is waging war against his own government
NBC News reports: Less than two weeks into his term, President Donald Trump is waging war against his own government, creating a deep sense of fear in the federal workforce — and recipients of federal aid — as he tests the limits of his power to alter the scope, function and nonpartisan nature of government without Congress. Primarily using two little-known agencies — the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management — Trump has tried to…
Ontario Premier Ford announces ban on American liquor in response to U.S. tariffs
CBC reports: Ontario Premier Doug Ford has ordered the Liquor Control Board of Ontario to strip its shelves of American products in response to the U.S. imposing 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian imports starting Tuesday. “Every year, LCBO sells nearly $1 billion worth of American wine, beer, spirits and seltzers. Not anymore,” said Ford in a statement Sunday morning. Ford says American liquor will be removed from LCBO shelves “starting Tuesday.” The premier said the LCBO, as the…
The far-right is rising at a crucial time in Germany, boosted by Elon Musk
By Matt Fitzpatrick, Flinders University With only a few weeks until Germany’s election, Elon Musk has unambiguously thrown his support behind the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. In a video address to a party rally last week, he appeared to urge Germans to “move on” from any “past guilt” related to the Holocaust. It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything. Troublingly, the AfD…
Music: Arooj Aftab — ‘Inayaat’
Wyden warns Bessent: Political meddling in Treasury payments risks severe economic damage to U.S.
U.S. Senate Committee On Finance: Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., demanded answers from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent today following a report that personnel affiliated with Elon Musk have sought access to a highly sensitive Treasury Department payment system. That system, which is maintained by non-political staff, disperses trillions of dollars each year, such as Social Security and Medicare benefits, tax credits for individuals and businesses, grants and payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with…
Mark Carney vows Canada will ‘stand up to bully’ as Trump imposes 25% trade tariffs
The Guardian reports: Mark Carney, the favourite to replace Justin Trudeau as the Canadian prime minister, has vowed that his country is “going to stand up to a bully” after Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on goods coming in from Canada. There are now 25% tariffs on goods coming into the US from Canada and Mexico, while China is being hit with tariffs of 10% on imported goods, leading some economists to fear the outbreak of a full-on, tit-for-tat…
Trump shows yet again he’s not really interested in reining in government spending
Rachael Bade writes: For all his bluster about “government efficiency” these days, President Donald Trump has never been comfortable as a scissor-happy, cost-cutting deficit warrior. He barreled into a Republican Party a decade ago that was dominated at the time by the debt-minded politics of Paul Ryan and the tea party movement and single-handedly shut down talk of slashing Social Security and Medicare. This week, his aversion to austerity showed its face again — and it portends strife ahead for…
Musk applies his Twitter destruction playbook on the U.S. government and it’s even more dangerous
Mike Masnick writes: Remember how Elon Musk destroyed Twitter by ripping apart its infrastructure without understanding it? Now imagine that same playbook applied to the federal government. It’s happening, and the stakes are exponentially higher. When reviewing Kate Conger and Ryan Mac’s book “Character Limit” last fall, I highlighted two devastating patterns in Musk’s management: his authoritarian impulse to (sometimes literally) demolish systems without understanding them, and his tendency to replace existing, nuanced solutions with far worse alternatives (even when…
24 hours after Washington air crash, Trump admin urges air traffic controllers across the U.S. to resign
The New York Times reports: The most challenging day in decades for air traffic controllers, safety inspectors and other Federal Aviation Administration employees started with profound questions about a deadly crash the night before — and ended with an email urging them to resign from their jobs. The email, sent from President Trump’s Office of Personnel and Management to employees across the sprawling federal government, arrived just before 8:30 p.m. Thursday — almost exactly 24 hours after an air crash…
Resistance: Acting FBI director refused DOJ order to fire Jan. 6 agents
NBC News reports: Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll on Friday refused a Justice Department order that he assist in the firing of agents involved in Jan. 6 riot cases, pushing back so forcefully that some FBI officials feared he would be dismissed, multiple current and former FBI officials told NBC News. The Justice Department ultimately did not dismiss Driscoll. He sent out a memo to the workforce Friday night explaining that he had been ordered to remove eight senior FBI…
Large language models may face a hard limit to their abilities
Anil Ananthaswamy writes: On December 17, 1962, Life International published a logic puzzle consisting of 15 sentences describing five houses on a street. Each sentence was a clue, such as “The Englishman lives in the red house” or “Milk is drunk in the middle house.” Each house was a different color, with inhabitants of different nationalities, who owned different pets, and so on. The story’s headline asked: “Who Owns the Zebra?” Problems like this one have proved to be a…