George Monbiot writes: Vengeful nihilism, the destruction of what they do not love, know or understand, is a major theme in Maga politics. It is applied as viciously to culture and science as it is to the natural world. It is hard to avoid the thought that environmental destruction is not just a means by which Trump serves his corporate backers, but an end in itself. At the same time, Trump enthusiastically (albeit vaguely) boosts Musk’s plans to send people…
Mila Tanghe writes: For the first time in decades, European NATO must consider fighting without the critical support and capabilities of the US military, the backbone of the alliance. The US is no longer “primarily focused on the security of Europe,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told allies in Brussels on February 12. Europe is not defenseless. Its militaries have well-trained forces, but they lack the strategic capabilities, command structures, and the sheer firepower necessary to sustain a prolonged conflict independently….
Adam Bonica writes: The billionaire revolt against Harris’s endorsement of a proposed 25% minimum tax on unrealized gains for fortunes exceeding $100 million perfectly illustrates how this single issue overrides all other political considerations for the ultra-wealthy. Marc Andreessen warned the proposal would “kill startups and venture capital” and even “kill the California tax base,” calling it “insane” and something that would “single-handedly crush the economy.” Elon Musk similarly railed against it, tweeting, “Eventually, they run out of other people’s…
Eric Levitz writes: Donald Trump just imposed a 25 percent tariff on virtually all goods produced by America’s two largest trading partners — Canada and Mexico. He simultaneously established a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods. As a result, America’s average tariff level is now higher than at any time since the 1940s. Meanwhile, China and Canada immediately retaliated against Trump’s duties, with the former imposing a 15 percent tariff on American agricultural products and the latter putting a 25 percent tariff on $30 billion of…
Politico reports: Senate Republicans urged Elon Musk on Wednesday to better coordinate with them, with many suggesting the tech billionaire send Congress a package of proposed spending cuts to enshrine the work of his Department of Government Efficiency initiative. The message was delivered during a closed-door lunch organized by Florida Sen. Rick Scott in the latest instance of congressional Republicans, who have generally praised his efforts, counseling Musk to more closely loop in lawmakers. The meeting came just hours after…
Wired reports: Some staffers at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing robust taxpayer-funded salaries from the federal agencies they are slashing and burning, WIRED has learned. Jeremy Lewin, one of the DOGE employees tasked with dismantling USAID, who has also played a role in DOGE’s incursions into the National Institutes of Health and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is listed as making just over $167,000 annually, WIRED has confirmed. Lewin is assigned to the Office of the…
President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images By Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino If there are any limits to a president’s power, it wasn’t evident from Donald Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025. In that speech, the first before lawmakers of Trump’s second term, the president declared vast accomplishments during the brief six weeks of his presidency. He claimed to have…
The Wall Street Journal reports: The world economy could face a crash similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s unless the U.S. rows back on its plans to impose steep tariffs on imports, a senior official at the International Chamber of Commerce warned. “Our deep concern is that this could be the start of a downward spiral that puts us in 1930s trade-war territory,” said Andrew Wilson, deputy secretary-general of the ICC, which promotes global business and trade. High…
Kyle Chayka writes: Silicon Valley is premised on the idea that its founders and engineers know better than anyone else: they can do better at disseminating information, at designing an office, at developing satellites and advancing space travel. By the same logic, they must be able to govern better than politicians and federal employees. Voguish concepts in Silicon Valley such as seasteading and “network states” feature independent, self-contained societies running on tech principles. Efforts to create such entities have either…
Wired reports: Representatives from dozens of nonprofit organizations attending a major human rights conference in Taipei, Taiwan, last week woke up Thursday to devastating news. Over the previous night in Asia, the Donald Trump administration had abruptly announced it would end nearly 10,000 contracts and grants from the US State Department, including the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) as well as the US Agency for International Development, representing about 90 percent of USAID’s contracts overall. The announcement…
The Guardian reports: Donald Trump has ordered that swathes of America’s forests be felled for timber, evading rules to protect endangered species while doing so and raising the prospect of chainsaws razing some of the most ecologically important trees in the US. The president, in an executive order, has demanded an expansion in tree cutting across 280m acres (113m hectares) of national forests and other public lands, claiming that “heavy-handed federal policies” have made America reliant on foreign imports of…
Government Executive reports: The Social Security Administration in recent days has initiated a flurry of actions aimed at decimating its workforce and that Democrats warn are an effort to sabotage the agency and prepare to privatize its functions. After a rash of abrupt retirements of senior leaders across the agency last week, the agency on Friday confirmed that it is seeking to shed 7,000 employees, which would bring its workforce down to 50,000 people. Last fall, the agency hit a…
CNN reports: The US Department of Health and Human Services has reversed an obscure requirement called the Richardson Waiver, which requires a period of notice and an opportunity for public comment on a wide range of decisions related to “agency management or personnel or to public property, loans, grants, benefits, or contracts.” The Richardson Waiver has been in force at the department since 1971 and imposes notice-and-comment periods above and beyond those required under something called the Administrative Procedures Act….
electrik reports: Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm has sold another $33 million worth of Tesla stock (TSLA) as she lets Elon Musk destroy the company’s brand. As the head of Tesla’s board of directors, Denholm is amongst the few people who actually have oversight over Elon Musk at Tesla. While Musk is CEO, he owns only about 13% of Tesla’s shares. Still, he is seen as having complete control over the company and the board, which is actually what led to…