Music: Yussef Kamaal — ‘Remembrance’
Judge Alsup blocks mass firings of federal workers. Judge Bates orders sworn testimony from DOGE officials
The Washington Post reports: A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind directives that initiated the mass firing of probationary workers across the government, ruling that the terminations were probably illegal, as a group of labor unions argued in court. U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered OPM to rescind its previous directives to more than two dozen agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Science Foundation…
Musk’s ‘freelance henchmen’ in DOGE are one scam away from a national security emergency
The Atlantic reports: [Elon Musk’s] major contribution, repeated to Trump and his advisers down at Mar-a-Lago, was to reject thinking about government as a lawyer would—a collection of institutions bound by norms, laws, and rules, and controlled by policy and decree. The bureaucracy does not easily bend to white papers. “The government runs on computers” soon became a mantra repeated by Trump’s advisers, who found themselves in awe of his enthusiasm and speed, even as they expressed annoyance at having…
Conflicts of interest: DOGE operatives at HUD from an AI real estate firm and a mobile home operator
Wired reports: On February 10, employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received an email asking them to list every contract at the bureau and note whether or not it was “critical” to the agency, as well as whether it contained any DEI components. This email was signed by Scott Langmack, who identified himself as a senior adviser to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Langmack, according to his LinkedIn, already has another job: He’s the…
America’s oligarchy is now fully exposed by Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk
Robert Reich writes: One of the unacknowledged advantages of the horrendous era we’ve entered is that it is revealing the putrid connections between great wealth and great power for all to see. Oligarchs are fully exposed and they are defiant. It’s like hitting the “reveal codes” key on older computers that let you see everything. On Wednesday, Jeff Bezos, the third-richest person in America, who bought the Washington Post in 2013, announced that the paper’s opinion section would henceforth focus…
Trump’s Washington is starting to feel like Putin’s Moscow
Peter Baker writes: She asked too many questions that the president didn’t like. She reported too much about criticism of his administration. And so, before long, Yelena Tregubova was pushed out of the Kremlin press pool that covered President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. In the scheme of things, it was a small moment, all but forgotten nearly 25 years later. But it was also a telling one. Mr. Putin did not care for challenges. The rest of the press pool got…
Tesla cars monitor everything — including you
The 2024 Tesla Model 3 has some of the most advanced navigation, autonomous driving, and safety features currently on the market, meaning it’s full of equipment that can record and track your surroundings—and you. How much data does Tesla collect? Where is it stored? And can you trust them to protect your sensitive information? WIRED decided to investigate.
Trump administration sets out to create an America its people have never experienced − one without a meaningful government
A worker removes letters from the U.S. Agency for International Development building. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images By Sidney Shapiro, Wake Forest University and Joseph P. Tomain, University of Cincinnati The U.S. government is attempting to dismantle itself. President Donald Trump has directed the executive branch to “significantly reduce the size of government.” That includes deep cuts in federal funding of scientific and medical research and freezing federal grants and loans for businesses. He has ordered the reversal or removal of regulations…
Music: Jon Hassell — ‘Last Night The Moon Came’
Trump’s policies will lead to ‘deep recession’ economists warn
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes: Donald Trump’s assault on the US federal government and the world’s interlinked manufacturing system have together reached an economic tipping point. “It seems almost unavoidable that we are headed for a deep, deep recession,” said Jesse Rothstein, Berkeley professor and former chief economist at the US labour department. Once the pace of job losses crosses a critical line, the multiplier effects can snowball suddenly. Prof Rothstein said monthly non-farm payrolls – the barometer of US economic health…
Large majority of Trump voters oppose Medicaid cuts, poll finds
The Hill reports: Most President Trump voters say they oppose any cuts to Medicaid as Republican lawmakers wrestle with how to reach up to $2 trillion in budget cuts through their reconciliation bill, a poll released Monday found. The poll from Hart Research conducted for the nonprofit Families Over Billionaires, which advocates in opposition to tax cuts for the wealthy, found 71 percent of voters who backed Trump said cutting Medicaid would be unacceptable. Voters overall were even more opposed…
Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding
The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk and his cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service team have been on a mission to trim government largesse. Yet Musk is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the taxpayers’ coffers. Over the years, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often at critical moments, a Washington Post analysis has found, helping seed the growth that has made him the world’s richest person. The payments stretch…
Trump allies circulate mass deportation plan calling for ‘processing camps’ and private citizen ‘army’
Politico reports: A group of prominent military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, has pitched the Trump White House on a proposal to carry out mass deportations through a network of “processing camps” on military bases, a private fleet of 100 planes, and a “small army” of private citizens empowered to make arrests. The blueprint — laid out in a 26-page document President Donald Trump’s advisers received before the inauguration — carries an estimated price tag of $25 billion…
What happens when law enforcement bows to political pressure?
The Bulwark‘s Tim Miller discusses with Ben Wittes the ramifications of the FBI declining to take action when there is clear evidence of criminal actions:
Russia is running out of money to finance the war
Agathe Demarais writes: As U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin consider meeting in the coming weeks, it may be useful to ask why it is that Moscow now appears inclined to end the war in Ukraine. Three years into the conflict, Putin has shown the world he doesn’t care about bloodshed. And if his goal was to install a Russia-friendly government in Kyiv, he remains far from achieving it. However, there is a third, less explored hypothesis…
Israel launches major air assault on Syria’s capital
Murtaza Hussain and Ali Younes report: Over a decade of civil war and sanctions have laid waste to much of Syria, crippling its economy and sending much of its population into exile. Already struggling to recover from this carnage, Syria is now facing attacks from Israel that threaten to destabilize the country. On Tuesday night, a wave of Israeli airstrikes struck targets near Damascus and other cities in southern Syria, with initial reports indicating that at least one person was…