Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
The Milei ‘Libragate’ debacle took months to develop, days to unfold
Target drops DEI initiatives and learns there are harsh consequences
Robinhood Seeks Expansion into Singapore’s Crypto Market by Late 2025
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
How COVID Pushed a Generation of Young People to the Right
Research suggests that pandemics are more likely to reduce rather than build trust in scientific and political authorities.
Politics:
White House Admits Musk Has No ‘Formal Authority’
Elon Musk is not the administrator of DOGE and nor is he an employee of the department that’s overseeing massive cuts to the federal workforce and agencies, per a Monday night White House court filing.
Cut out of Washington’s Farewell Address, they’re what we need to read right now.
Trump Begins Firings of Air Traffic Control Staff
The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
This is Not Marco Rubio’s State Department
Since taking over Foggy Bottom, Rubio has constantly appeared one or two steps behind the actions of President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk—popping up to explain, justify or even double down on choices he would probably not make if he was actually running the show.
He’s talking (and posting online) in a different voice, contradicting earlier policy views and appears to have little control over the implementation of Trump’s assault on the federal workforce.
Pence Is One of the Few Republicans to Oppose Trump
Mike Pence is emerging as one of the last Republicans in Washington willing to publicly criticize the new administration.
It’s an especially jarring role for the former vice president, whose refusal to break with Trump defined their time together in office until the two had a falling out over Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and his efforts to remain in power.
Vance’s real warning to Europe
When JD Vance took the stage at the Munich Security Conference last week, he issued a stern warning. The US vice-president told the assembled politicians and diplomats that free speech and democracy are under attack from European elites: “The threat I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s . . . the threat from within.”
If Vance hoped to persuade his audience, rather than simply insult it, he failed. Indeed, his speech backfired spectacularly, convincing many listeners that America itself is now a threat to Europe. In the throng outside the conference hall, a prominent German politician told me: “That was a direct assault on European democracy.” A senior diplomat said: “It’s very clear now, Europe is alone.” When I asked him if he now regarded the US as an adversary, he replied: “Yes.”
The most positive verdict I heard on the speech was that it was “puerile bullshit”…
The Staffers Helping Elon Musk Dismantle and Downsize the U.S. Government, One Agency at a Time
Musk and his lieutenants are reshaping the government and its mission with the blessing of President Trump. ProPublica has confirmed the names and roles of more than 30 staffers affiliated with the billionaire.
The Death of Government Expertise
One of the greatest tricks that Donald Trump and Elon Musk ever pulled is to convince millions of people that DOGE, the self-styled Department of Government Efficiency, is about government efficiency.”
DOGE isn’t really a department; it’s not an agency; it has no statutory authority; and it has little to do with saving money, streamlining the bureaucracy, or eliminating waste. It is a name that Trump is allowing a favored donor and ally to use in a reckless campaign against various targets in the federal government. The whole enterprise is an attack against civil servants and the very notion of apolitical expertise.
Social Security Official Leaves In Protest of Elon Musk
The top official at the Social Security Administration stepped down this weekend after members of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency sought access to sensitive personal data about millions of Americans held by the agency.
The resignation of Michelle King, the acting commissioner, is the latest abrupt departure of a senior federal official who refused to provide Mr. Musk’s lieutenants with access to closely held data. Mr. Musk’s team has been embedding with agencies across the federal government and seeking access to private data as part of what it has said is an effort to root out fraud and waste.
It Really Wasn’t About Free Speech
Do you all remember how Republicans and enraged right-wing pundits spent the past four years screaming and hollering and foaming at the mouth over ‘censorship’ and the importance of free speech?
Yeah, those folks are all pretty quiet right now while the Trump administration is banning specific words from government websites, aggressively trying to erase transgender people from history and blocking Associated Press reporters…
Washington Post Backs Out of Ad Order
The Washington Post this week backed out of a ‘Fire Elon Musk’ advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.
The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement with the Postto run the ad that would have covered the front and back page of the Tuesday paper, as well as a full-page ad with the same theme inside the paper. It said it planned to purchase the ad in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.
Quebec is the most anti-Trump province in Canada
European Leaders Forced to Recalculate
For years, European leaders have fretted about reducing their dependence on a wayward United States.
On Monday, at a hastily arranged meeting in Paris, the hand-wringing gave way to harried acceptance of a new world in which Europe’s most powerful ally has begun acting more like an adversary.
Books mentioning slavery, civil rights removed from shelves at Fort Campbell schools
At an elementary school at Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division, librarians are hard at work scrubbing the shelves. But they aren’t scrubbing for dust. They’re scrubbing for books that contain references to slavery, the civil rights movement and anything else related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Serendipity:
Why community pharmacies are closing – and what to do if your neighborhood location shutters
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