Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Coinbase Users Are Losing $300M a Year to Social Scams
US Treasury sued for giving Elon Musk’s DOGE access to sensitive info
Crypto Dips Again as China Set to Impose Tariffs on US Goods
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Long COVID impacting more than 1 million children: CDC study suggests
Politics:
The ‘Unscheduled Disassembly’ of the U.S. Government
Elon Musk is not the president, but it does appear that he—a foreign-born, unelected billionaire who was not confirmed by Congress—is exercising profound influence over the federal government of the United States, seizing control of information, payments systems, and personnel management.”
It is nothing short of an administrative coup.
U.S. Attorney Offers to Protect Musk’s DOGE Staff
The newly appointed interim US attorney for the District of Columbia said he would take legal action against anyone who impedes or threatens Elon Musk’s government-efficiency staff, raising the stakes after repeated confrontations between the group and civil servants at various US agencies.
Democratic Senator to Block Trump’s Nominees
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said he would place a ‘blanket hold’ on all of President Trump’s State Department nominees until his administration’s attack on the leading foreign-assistance agency ends, a move that threatens to stall Trump’s ability to get his foreign-policy team in place.
Schatz said he would block any of Trump’s diplomatic confirmations until USAID again is allowed to operate normally and the administration ceases its ‘authoritarian behavior.’ Such a hold would halt the Senate’s ability to move bills quickly, and require Senate Majority Leader John Thune to use precious floor time to advance the president’s nominees through the confirmation process.
Said Schatz: “I will oppose unanimous consent. I will vote no. I will do maximal delays until this is resolved.”
In normal times, this would be a scandal that shocked the nation: Rubio says El Salvador offers to accept deportees from US of any nationality, including Americans
Top ‘60 Minutes’ Producer Says He Will Not Apologize
The head of ‘60 Minutes’ told the show’s staff on Monday that he would not apologize as part of any prospective settlement in a lawsuit brought by President Trump against their network, CBS.
The comments by Bill Owens, the executive producer who oversees the long-running news program, came as CBS’s parent company, Paramount, is pursuing settlement talks with Mr. Trump.
The GOP’s Meek Acquiescence to Trump’s Power Grabs
The story of the first two weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term is one of a hostile takeover of government power with relatively little pushback. And those with the most power to change Trump’s course in the near term — congressional Republicans — have been especially meek, even as he’s trampled on their prerogatives and past ideals.
The upshot: The party of limited government and federalism is tacitly green-lighting a more autocratic chief executive.
And there’s little sign Republicans will feel compelled to change it up, given that their party’s base has increasingly embraced the idea that what Trump says, goes.
Trump says he wants Ukraine's rare earth elements as a condition of further support
Kremlin collaborator and Donetsk paramilitary leader killed in Moscow bomb explosion
What is a country? The way its people govern themselves. America exists because its people elect those who make and execute laws. The assumption of a democracy is that individuals have dignity and rights that they realize and protect by acting together.
The people who now dominate the executive branch of the government deny all of this, and are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation. For them, only a few people, the very wealthy with a certain worldview, have rights, and the first among these is to dominate…
Theirs is a logic of destruction. It is very hard to create a large, legitimate, functioning government. The oligarchs have no plan to govern. They will take what they can, and disable the rest. The destruction is the point. They don’t want to control the existing order. They want disorder in which their relative power will grow.
On the dangerous breed of ideologically-motivated billionaires who believe that democratic institutions have no purpose—and who are ready to use their wealth to advance their alternative visions…
Donald Trump’s return to power presents a threat to democratic institutions far graver than any he posed in his first term as president. Unlike in 2017, he has a team that knows how to use the levers of power to advance his agenda. He no longer needs the support or advice of so-called “traditional” Republicans, experts, or any other members of the establishment. In today’s White House, loyalty is the name of the game (with explicit questions measuring fealty to the president now part of the official application process to join the administration). Trump doesn’t need outside expertise; he knows what he wants to do and is willing to achieve it at any cost. He just needs others to carry out his bidding…
The greatest threat to democracy, regardless of what Trump and his vanguard do in these coming months and years in power, is that these new oligarchs will decide that loss of power is unacceptable to them. Trump and those in his inner orbit only care about strength, as measured by money and influence. Races are all about money; diplomacy is all about who offers the best terms. In a paradigm where strength is everything, and values don’t count, returning power becomes unacceptable. We already came close to this with Trump in 2020, and that was before he had assembled a coalition of new and dangerous allies. But at that point, democratic institutions weren’t yet fragile enough, and traditional conservatives like Mike Pence were willing to play a role to uphold them.
Trump to Invoke 18th Century Law to Speed Deportations
…Donald Trump is set to test the limits of his immigration crackdown by invoking a wartime law to deport immigrants alleged to be gang members without court hearings, a broad authority that could supercharge his mass deportation push and potentially sweep in people not charged with crimes.
After taking office, Trump ordered military and immigration officials to be ready by Feb. 3 to implement the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, last used to justify internment camps for people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War Two. The move – which would almost certainly face legal challenges – could allow him to bypass due process rights and rapidly remove migrants.
Trump Is Sowing the Seeds of an Anti-American Alliance
‘Our strategy on tariffs will be to shoot first and ask questions later.’ That was what one of Donald Trump’s key economic policymakers told me late last year.
That kind of macho swagger is currently fashionable in Washington. But the US president’s shoot-from-the-hip tactics are profoundly dangerous — for America itself, as well as the countries that he has targeted with tariffs.
The potential economic risks for the US — higher inflation and industrial disruption — are well known. The strategic consequences for America are less immediately obvious — but could be just as serious and even longer lasting. Trump’s tariffs threaten to destroy the unity of the western alliance.
He is sowing the seeds of an alternative grouping formed by the many countries that feel newly threatened by America. Co-operation will be informal at first, but will harden the longer the tariff wars go on.”
Trump Advisers Weigh Plan to Dismantle Education Department
European leaders ponder ‘cruel paradox’ of U.S. threatening tariffs and a possible land grab
After three years spent trying to deter Russia from destroying Ukraine, European Union leaders grappled on Monday with possible responses to a major ally who appears determined to start a trade war or perhaps even seize part of their territory.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that it would ‘be a cruel paradox, if during the time of this direct Russian threat and Chinese expansion’ that the EU and the United States might end up in a ‘conflict among allies.’
Key State Department Programs ‘Wiped Out’ After Dozens of Contractors Fired
The deep cuts to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor — which focuses on advancing democracy — is the latest way Trump is trying to slash foreign aid.
Serendipity:
What the ‘moral distress’ of doctors tells us about eroding trust in health care
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