The Conversation -- February 7, 2025

⭐Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Treasury Department is appointing an ally of billionaire Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service to a senior position in the department overseeing the nation's powerful payment systems, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.... Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive with ties to DOGE, will become the financial assistant secretary of the Treasury Department, the people said. He replaces David A. Lebryk, who resigned after objecting to Krause's demands to stop payments on foreign aid -- a measure Lebryk resisted as illegal. Krause's position will give him control over the Treasury Department system responsible for disbursing more than $5 trillion in annual payments, including for Social Security, Medicare, tax refunds and thousands of other measures. Musk has demanded on social media that Treasury unilaterally stop sending these payments, accusing the department's career staff of breaking the law. The decision puts Musk's DOGE in a potential position to make sweeping changes to the federal budget, with implications for tens of millions of Americans.... The move has also touched off broad alarm within the Treasury Department....

"Musk and Vice President JD Vance called on social media Friday for [the] reinstatement [if Marko Elez, a 25-year-old racist acolyte of Musk's]. 'I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life,' Vance said." MB: "The kid"? Way back yesterday Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called him a "highly-trained professional." (See first Rachel Maddow video below.)

Marie: I occasionally hear people wishing Trump would go away, and he may. But be careful what you wish for. Here's Dan Mangan's version of the Vance/Musk/Elez story: ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Vice President JD Vance on Friday called for the rehiring of a DOGE staffer who resigned from a sensitive Trump administration post over the exposure of tweets advocating for racism and eugenics. Vance's call came in a reply to a poll that DOGE chief Elon Musk launched on his social media platform X asking users whether 25-year-old staffer Marko Elez should be rehired to Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency team.... [Musk's 'poll' asked, 'Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?'...] 'Here's my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life,' Vance wrote in a tweet. 'We shouldn't reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever,' said Vance, referring to the fact that The Wall Street Journal on Thursday exposed Elez's connection to an X account that made the inflammatory tweets. 'So I say bring him back,' Vance wrote. 'If he's a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jason Abbruzzese of NBC News: "Elon Musk said Friday that he will bring back a DOGE staff member who resigned after it was found that he had previously made racist remarks online. 'To err is human, to forgive divine,' Musk said in a repost to X of a post from Vice President JD Vance that also supported the staffer's reinstatement.... Donald Trump, when asked about Vance's response during a news conference, said, 'I'm with the vice president.'... Gavin Kliger, another DOGE staffer, was reported by Rolling Stone to have previously reposted content from Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who has dined with ... Donald Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the whole administration is white supremacist: the president*, the other president & the vice president. ~~~

     ~~~ Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "Elon Musk ... suggested that The Wall Street Journal reporter responsible for uncovering a DOGE employee's racist tweets should be fired on Friday.... The billionaire asserted that 'She's a disgusting and cruel person.'... After right-wing influencer Mario Nawfal asserted that 'WOKE JOURNALIST KATHERINE LONG WHO DOXXED DOGE STAFFER HAS TIES TO USAID,' Musk declared that 'She should be fired immediately.' The irony of Musk -- a self-proclaimed 'free speech absolutist' -- calling for the head of a journalist who accurately reported on a public official's actions, was not lost on all. '"I'm a free speech absolutist who thinks reporters should be fired for discovering unflattering information about public officials,"' joked Andrew Fleischman on X."

Once a Criminal, Always a Criminal. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "So, here's a shocker: It turns out that, if you elect a felon as president of the United States, he will continue to break laws once he's in office.... [Arguably,] the new administration over the course of the last fortnight has violated each of the following laws.... The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024. The Administrative Leave Act of 2016. The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. The Inspector General Act of 1978. The Privacy Act of 1974. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. The Public Health Service Act 1944. The Antideficiency Act of 1870....

"And those don't include the ways in which Trump already appears to be in violation of the Constitution: The First Amendment's protections of free speech and association; the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection and due process; the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment; the 14th Amendment's promise of birthright citizenship; Article I's spending, presentment, appropriations and bicameralism clauses; Article II's take-care clause; and the separation of powers generally." Milbank urges Democrats not to give Trump a single vote. MB: That means you, too, John Fetterman. The link above is supposed to be a gift link. If it fails, please let me know.

Trudeau Takes Trump's Threats Seriously. Vjosa Isai of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Friday made his first comments in response to ... [Donald] Trump's repeated statements that he wants to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. Mr. Trudeau made clear that he did not regard Mr. Trump's statements as having been in made in jest and believes annexation is something Canada needs to treat as a serious threat. And he believes he knows why Mr. Trump covets Canada. 'I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,' Mr. Trudeau told a gathering of company executives and business leaders in Toronto, according to people in the room who listened to his comments. The news media had been asked to leave the room at the time Mr. Trudeau delivered his comments, but at least two news outlets, The Toronto Star and the CBC, were able to hear them and record them. Mr. Trudeau's office declined to provide details of what the prime minister said." Politico's story is here.

"In Reality, Trump Got Rolled." Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump has made a habit of ginning up crises and then declaring victory when he 'solves' them. We in the media must stop giving this arsonist credit for his firefighting skills. The past two weeks have been fraught with international emergencies of the president's own making -- either problems that he pretends already plague us, or those he manifests into existence. This is the best way to understand his trade-war brinkmanship with Canada and Mexico.... It turns out the trick to negotiating with Trump is to realize he has no idea what the facts are. Thus, Mexican and Canadian leaders offered Trump, as their supposedly painful 'concessions,' promises to do what they'd already been doing.... The White House press secretary characterized these supposed concessions as 'bending the knee' to the United States. In reality, Trump got rolled.... In stoking these fights, Trump has lost the trust of our friends."

Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo sounds the alarm about Musk's JV squad's taking over highly complex computer systems, developed over decades, which the kidz cannot possibly understand. The "move fast and break things" modus operandi, as you might suspect, is not made for, say, air traffic control systems. Worth a read.

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Trump administration has agreed to keep private a list of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases unless it first provides a two-day head start for the employees to seek a court's intervention. The agreement between the FBI Agents Association and ... Donald Trump's Justice Department deescalates, for now, a showdown between the bureau and DOJ after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sought the list. FBI agents sued to prevent its dissemination over fears that Trump appointees intended to publicize the list, potentially putting thousands of FBI officials at risk of reprisal. The 'consent order,' adopted by U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb Friday afternoon, lacks a safeguard FBI employees' lawyers were asking for during a court hearing Thursday: A restriction on passing the information from the Justice Department to other agencies or the White House. But the judge's directive bars the entire federal government -- not just the Justice Department -- from making any part of the list public without giving two business days' notice.... Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll initially transmitted a list of 5,000 employees -- identified only by ID numbers -- to DOJ leadership. Bove subsequently criticized him for 'insubordination.' A full roster with names was sent to DOJ on Thursday, Driscoll said."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Defense Department has begun restricting access to books and learning materials covering subjects from immigration to psychology in its school system serving U.S. military families, citing the Trump administration's crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.... The effort affects curriculums for elementary school ages and up, and follows similar efforts at the U.S. military's elite academies for prospective military officers. The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) serves about 67,000 students spread across 161 schools at military installations around the globe. A list distributed with the memo details specific chapters from books, or entire books, that are no longer allowed during the compliance review."

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department's newly formed 'Weaponization Working Group,' announced in a memo this week by Attorney General Pam Bondi, was purportedly intended to root out 'abuses of the criminal justice process' by local and federal law enforcement officers. But a literal reading of its name suggests that the investigative body was also an example of the department itself, now under new leadership, weaponizing its expansive powers to scrutinize and perhaps take action against several officials who, for various reasons, have run afoul of ... [Donald] Trump.... The memo, issued on Wednesday, signaled the most significant first step in deploying the levers of government to carry out Mr. Trump's repeated suggestions to exact retribution against those he perceives to be his enemies....

"The memo ... also included a laundry list of Republican boogeymen and grievances that the working group was intended to address. At the top of that list were three prosecutors who all brought separate cases against Mr. Trump, even though there is no indication that any of them violated the law. They are the former special counsel Jack Smith; Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney; and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.... Ms. Bondi's memo also directed the working group to look into what it described as the 'improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions' arising from the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021."

~~~~~~~~~~

New York Times reporter suggests Donald Trump is a phony and is not the "changed man" he claims to be after "God saved him" from an assassin's bullet: ~~~

~~~ "Trump Pauses Online Tirade to Preach Unity." Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "Of all the many forms Donald J. Trump can take, maybe the most perplexing one is Pious Trump. It is a shape he shifted into shortly after 8 o'clock on Thursday morning to deliver a sermon of sorts on Capitol Hill for the annual National Prayer Breakfast. In the grand amphitheater of National Statuary Hall, members of Congress [-- Republicans and Democrats --] sat before him. 'Look at each other,' he urged. He said they were a 'great group of people' and beseeched them to come together. 'We have to make life better for everyone,' he said.... This was somewhat amazing, since the various other forms of Mr. Trump happened to be running around with flamethrowers earlier that morning, torching the federal bureaucracy, the global order, the media, the opposition party in the room and even the messaging coming out of his own White House.

"Just before his arrival at the Capitol to preach unity, he had gone on a fiery posting spree. He demanded that CBS lose its broadcasting license. He trumpeted a baseless conspiracy theory that Democrats had 'STOLLEN' billions of dollars from the [U.S.A.I.D.] to pay off media outlets for slanted coverage. 'DEMOCRATS CAN'T HIDE FROM THIS ONE,' he wrote. 'TOO BIG, TOO DIRTY!' In another post a few minutes before that one, he elaborated upon his desire to grab the Gaza Strip, an idea that drew bipartisan condemnation and shocked even his own staff, who tried to clean it up yesterday, evidently to no avail. He described Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, pejoratively as a Palestinian." ~~~

Rather than protecting religious beliefs, this ['anti-Christian bias'] task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination and the subversion of our civil rights laws. If Trump really cared about religious freedom and ending religious persecution, he'd be addressing antisemitism in his inner circle, anti-Muslim bigotry, hate crimes against people of color and other religious minorities. -- Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a statement ~~~

~~~ Erica Green of the New York Times: Donald "Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at eradicating 'anti-Christian bias' in the federal government by having agencies review policies and practices that he says have tried to squelch religious activities and activism. Mr. Trump, who announced the order at the National Prayer Breakfast, appointed his new attorney general, Pam Bondi, to lead a task force at the Justice Department to spearhead the effort. Mr. Trump said the task force would 'fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society' and 'move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.'"

Erica Green of the New York Times: Donald "Trump signed an executive order on Thursday placing sanctions on the International Criminal Court, saying that his administration would 'impose tangible and significant consequences' on people who work on investigations that threaten the national security of the United States and its allies, including Israel. The court faced backlash from the U.S. and Israel in November over its decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the course of its conflict with Hamas in Gaza." ~~~

     ~~~ Aitor Hernández-Morales of Politico: "European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa on Friday blasted ... Donald Trump's decision to impose aggressive economic sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). In their first swipe at the new U.S. administration, the EU heavyweights said Trump's move weakened justice at a global level."

Lauren Hirsch, et al., of the New York Times: Donald "Trump met this week with the PGA Tour commissioner, the tour said on Thursday, as the Justice Department considers whether to approve a venture between the United States' premier golf circuit and one backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.... In addition to the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, Mr. Trump hosted Adam Scott, who won the Masters Tournament in 2013 and sits on the PGA Tour's board. During the Oval Office meeting, Mr. Trump also spoke by telephone with Yasir al-Rumayyan, the Saudi wealth fund's governor and one of the most influential figures in Saudi Arabia.... Mr. Trump, stung by the professional golf establishment's distancing itself from him after his entry into politics, has been one of [the LIV's] most steadfast supporters and one of its most essential vendors." MB: So no conflict of interest, amirite? Oh wait, the POTUS* can do no wrong, s/Supreme Friends of Trump

Am! Are Not! Am Too! Aaron Boxerman of the New York Times: Donald "Trump on Thursday defended his proposal for the United States to take charge of postwar Gaza and resettle its Palestinian residents, but stressed that he would not deploy U.S. troops to the enclave, as Israel's defense minister announced that he had ordered the military to draft a plan to allow people to voluntarily leave. The developments add to a swirl of confusion over the proposal by Mr. Trump to 'take over' the Gaza Strip and for the roughly two million Palestinians living there to move elsewhere. The forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international humanitarian law, a war crime and a crime against humanity, experts say. Mr. Trump's plan has already provoked furious opposition around the world, with some critics likening it to ethnic cleansing.... Some of Mr. Trump's aides had sought to soften the president's ideas on Wednesday evening. But in an early morning social media post, Mr. Trump doubled down, saying that the United States and its partners were prepared to build 'one of the greatest and most spectacular developments' on the planet in Gaza once Israel ceded control there." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blasted ... Donald Trump's commitment to the rule of law, saying he is trampling the Constitution to pursue 'political or personal gain.' U.S. District Judge strong> John C. Coughenour offered his commentary while becoming the second federal judge in two days to issue a nationwide injunction that blocks the Trump administration from moving forward on an executive order aimed at curbing birthright citizenship. Coughenour had eviscerated the executive order as 'blatantly unconstitutional' during a hearing two weeks ago in the lawsuit brought by a coalition of four Democratic-led states. In Thursday's court session, Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, criticized Trump in direct and unsparing terms moments after Justice Department lawyers had finished arguing that the order was constitutional." (Also linked yesterday.)

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "Ellen L. Weintraub, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, said on Thursday that ... [Donald] Trump had moved to fire her. Ms. Weintraub, who has served as a Democratic commissioner on the bipartisan panel since 2002, posted a short letter signed by Mr. Trump on social media that said she was 'hereby removed' from the commission effective immediately. She said in an interview that she did not see the president's move as legally valid, and that she was considering her options on how to respond. 'There's a perfectly legal way for him to replace me,' Ms. Weintraub said on Thursday evening. 'But just flat-out firing me, that is not it.'... A commissioner is removed only after a replacement is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and Ms. Weintraub said that the president did not have the power to force her off the commission before that. Trevor Potter, a former commissioner and chairman of the commission nominated by President George H.W. Bush, denounced the move to fire Ms. Weintraub in a statement, saying that doing so would violate constitutional separation of powers." The Hill's story is here.

David Bauder of the AP: "Federal government payments to news outlets like Politico, The New York Times and The Associated Press for subscriptions or to license content are in the crosshairs of Trump administration spending hawks, with the president on Thursday calling it potentially 'THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL.' By linking federal government spending to the media, Trump has bundled two of his long-favored political targets into one rhetorical package -- denouncing a common practice as untoward while offering no supporting evidence for his assertions. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the government had paid more than $8 million for Politico subscriptions and that Elon Musk's government efficiency team 'is working on canceling those payments.'... It has not been unusual for governments, federal and state, to subscribe to major media outlets to keep up on important or strategic issues.... The New York Times said it earned less than $2 million last year through government subscriptions, which are offered at a discounted rate. Through one arrangement, the Times gives access to more than 1 million active and retired military members and their families." ~~~

     ~~~ Christian Paz of Vox explains the non-scandal SCANDAL: "The nation's governance is increasingly at the whim of online conspiracy theorists.... None of [the facts, which Paz lays out] seemed to matter to [Elon] Musk, who quickly encountered these online conspiracies and responded that he'd shut down the payments. The Tesla CEO spent much of the rest of the day on X reposting and amplifying posts about government payments to news organizations, NGOs, and nonprofits -- and eventually, the conspiracies made their way to the White House.... All it took was a few posts for Musk, who now seems to wield limitless power in the federal bureaucracy, to launch a new crackdown, and now at least one federal department, the US Department of Agriculture, is complying and stopping payments, according to independent journalist Marisa Kabas. Another, the General Services Administration, is being ordered to cancel 'every single media contract' the agency expenses, including Politico, its subsidiaries, and the BBC, per Axios." ~~~

     ~~~ Erik Wemple of the Washington Post weighs in: "The events that befell Politico on Wednesday couldn't have materialized in a functional country."

Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Federal Aviation Administration is slowing flights into Reagan National Airport, a safety measure taken as members of Congress demand answers about last week's deadly crash and ... Donald Trump and Elon Musk promise a rapid overhaul of aviation technology.... At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning, Trump promised a 'great, computerized system' of air traffic control, something 'brand new ... done by two or three companies.' Musk chimed in on his social media platform X with a promise to 'make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.' Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and [Sen. Ted] Cruz [R-Texas] both said they welcomed Musk's involvement given his experience running the rocket company SpaceX. 'One of the top technology CEOs on planet Earth is available,' Cruz told reporters. 'I think that is a real opportunity.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, Mr. Trump. You mean air traffic control is going to get a computerized system? Really new-fangled, Donald. The air traffic controllers must be all agog at the very thought of it.

Marie: So maybe you're a little concerned that Elon and His Little Rascals are messing with air traffic control and all the Republicans think that's great. Wait, wait, they're into nuclear weapons, too! ~~~

~~~ Ella Nilsen of CNN: "A representative from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was granted access to the Energy Department's IT system on Wednesday by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, two people with knowledge of the situation told CNN. Wright granted access to DOGE representative Luke Farritor -- a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern -- even over objections from members of the department's general counsel and chief information offices, the people told CNN. The DOE chief information office is the department's IT and cybersecurity office. Members of the general counsel and chief information offices 'said this is a bad idea' because Farritor hadn't had a standard background investigation needed to access the department's system, one of the people told CNN.... In addition to DOGE presence in the building, Energy Department employees -- including the National Nuclear Security Administration -- have received the so-called buyout emails that employees in many other agencies have been receiving."

Don't Worry About Elon -- He's So Ethical, He's Policing Himself. Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that Elon Musk ... is in charge of excusing himself when he comes across conflicts of interest pertaining to his businesses during the White House press briefing on Wednesday. 'The president was already asked and answered this question this week, and he said if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,' answered Leavitt. 'And he has again abided by all applicable laws.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

It is against the law. -- Elon Musk, on X, on news outlets revealing the names of his Boyz Club ~~~

Marie: A few days ago, Maggie Dupre of Futurism reported, "Elon Musk is really, really mad that journalists at Wired revealed the names of a cohort of extremely young engineers he's tasked with firing federal employees, assisting in dismantling congressionally-created agencies like USAID, and clomping through the federal government's wide-ranging and sensitive troves of data.... Musk has spent the last day or so decrying the naming of the young employees, who do not come from government backgrounds and reportedly range in age between 19 and 25, as illegal and even worthy of prosecution.... But journalists revealing the names and ages of the young men now knees-deep in a widely decried and possibly illegal romp into the infrastructure of our government is baseline transparency. Especially because, again, DOGE is not even a real government agency, and currently seems to be enjoying little to no guardrails or oversight.... Musk himself has a well-documented history of singling out specific federal employees by name, promoting an X post as recently as November that shared the name of a federal employee singled out for her work in 'climate diversification' -- and, as a result, launched a throng of woefully ill-informed harassment her way." ~~~

     ~~~ But, in fairness to Elon, you can see why he is "really, really mad" that journalists found out the names of his incel team. Because lookie what happened next. ~~~

~~~ Bobby Allyn & Shannon Bond of NPR: "A staffer connected to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency resigned on Thursday after now-deleted racist social media posts were resurfaced.... Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer, was working inside the Treasury Department.... Elez, who formerly worked at Musk companies X and SpaceX, was one of two temporary appointees at Treasury connected to DOGE who have been granted access to a highly sensitive Treasury system that processes trillions of dollars in payments every year. The Wall Street Journal reported on a number of 2024 posts from an account connected to Elez on Musk's X platform.... 'You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,' the account wrote in September. 'Normalize Indian hate,' a separate post from that month read. In July of last year, the account posted: 'Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.' In other posts, from December, the account pushed for repealing the Civil Rights Act and shared: 'I just want a eugenic immigration policy, is that too much to ask.'... Elez had recently been appointed a special government employee at the Treasury, the government told the federal judge hearing the case this week.... Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the DOGE team on Bloomberg Television on Thursday, saying the unit consists of trained professionals." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Speaking of Marko Elez, who apparently fancies himself a White Boy possessed of very superior White Boy genes, a line in the following report stood out. ~~~

     ~~~ Emily Singer of Daily Kos: "A federal judge limited co-President Elon Musk and his army of teenage Department of Government Efficiency minions' access to the Treasury Department's payment systems Thursday in response to a group of unions' lawsuit alleging that DOGE's access violated the Privacy Act of 1974. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's order said that Treasury Department employees will block Musk and other DOGE workers' access 'to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.' The order does, however, allow 'read only" access of the payment systems to two 'special government employees' who have ties to Musk: Tom Krause, the chief executive of Cloud Software Group Inc., and Marko Elez, a 25-year-old engineer.... Krause and Elez were assigned to the Treasury Department through DOGE, and reportedly 'passed government background checks and obtained the necessary security clearances,' The New York Times reported on Feb. 1." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Who conducted what kind of security check that missed Marko's eugenics musings? If the WSJ could find Marko's X account in a day or two, why couldn't those supposed security checkers? Or did they learn about Marko's rampant racism and shrug? ~~~

~~~ And this: ~~~

Olivia George, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Massachusetts paused the deadline for the Trump administration's buyout program for federal workers Thursday afternoon, two days after unions representing more than 800,000 federal workers asked the court to halt the program, calling it an 'arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum.' U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. set another hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. for full arguments." (Also linked yesterday.) The ABC News story is here.

Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Agents of billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have gained access to highly restricted government records on millions of federal employees -- including Treasury and State Department officials in sensitive security positions -- as part of a broader effort to gain control over the government&'s main personnel agency, according to four U.S. officials with knowledge of the developments. The officials ... expressed alarm about potential breaches or abuses of such records by members of an administration whose senior-most officials, including ... Donald Trump, have threatened to retaliate against federal workers accused of disloyalty. The records maintained by the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, amount to a repository of sensitive information about employees of most federal agencies -- including addresses, demographic profiles, salary details and disciplinary histories. The moves at the OPM by members of Musk's pseudo-governmental DOGE have coincided with similar efforts to gain access to sensitive systems at other agencies...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Shelby Talcott of Semafor: "The Social Security Administration is an upcoming focus of the Department of Government Efficiency, a source with knowledge of its work told Semafor, and one person involved in DOGE is currently preparing to work with the agency that provides benefits to the elderly and disabled.... DOGE's interest in trying to root out fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, and perhaps soon in cutting at the Social Security Administration, suggests that government programs once seen as untouchable may be on the table."

Well, everything's going according to plan over there at Pete's Department of Defense of White Men & Drinking Society. ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Campos in LG&$ digs up a memo, via Ken Klippenstein, from DOD Defense Intelligence Agency (a misnomer if there ever was one) instructing all DIA personnel to immediately suspend all those nasty DEI observances, like MLK Jr. Day, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pride Day & Women' Equality Day. Two of the now-very-unspecial days -- MLK L. Day & Juneteenth -- are national holidays, so I'm not sure how DIA personnel will get around observing those. But I'm sure they can be flexible! Meanwhile, the Navy is cancelling all sexual assault prevention & response training, because, I don't know, women and gays or something. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Shannon Osaka & Jake Spring of the Washington Post: "In a memo released Thursday, the Federal Highway Administration ordered states to halt a $5 billion program to build fast EV chargers on highways nationwide -- an initiative that ... Donald Trump cited as an example of the 'Green New Deal.' The letter informs state transportation directors ... that any plans approved by the Biden administration are now suspended until the Transportation Department provides new guidelines in the spring.... The order, which comes as many states are still working to build out their public chargers..., could strike a major blow to an industry that has experienced slower-than-expected sales and could lose critical federal tax incentives in coming months. On Wednesday, Ford Motor Co. projected it could lose as much as $5.5 billion this year on its EV and software business.... Tesla [-- whose CEO is Elon Musk --] has been a key recipient of charging grants, and it has the largest fast-charger network in the country."

Hannah Natanson, et al., of the Washington Post: "Representatives from Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service have fed sensitive data from across the Education Department into artificial intelligence software to probe the agency's programs and spending, according to two people with knowledge of the DOGE team's actions. The AI probe includes data with personally identifiable information for people who manage grants, as well as sensitive internal financial data.... The DOGE team is using AI software accessed through Microsoft's cloud computing service Azure to pore over every dollar of money the department disburses.... At the Education Department, DOGE's team aims to radically reduce spending and ultimately shrink the department and its staff, the people said -- helping further the Trump administration's push to get rid of it entirely. The DOGE team plans to replicate this process across many departments and agencies, accessing the back-end software at different parts of the government and then using AI technology to extract and sift through information...."

Maxine Joselow & Amudalet Ajasa of the Washington Post: "... Trump appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency notified staff members that they plan to close the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights and place 168 of its employees on administrative leave, according to agency officials. The tumult has also engulfed the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, a little-known yet crucial office tasked with defending the federal government's environmental actions in court. Trump appointees recently announced plans to fire about 20 employees at the division, among other actions that have sent morale there plummeting....

"And as one of her first acts after being sworn in as the nation's 87th attorney general Wednesday, Pam Bondi rescinded former attorney general Merrick Garland's directives on environmental justice, according to a memorandum obtained by The Washington Post. Bondi also directed the heads of all U.S. Attorney's Offices to revoke any 'memoranda, guidance, or similar directive that implement the prior administration's "environmental justice' agenda.'"

Oh, "Rank Insubordination," Is It, Marco? Karoon Demirjian & Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development from more than 10,000 to about 290 positions, three people with knowledge of the plans said on Thursday. The small remaining staff includes employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance.... U.S.A.I.D. officials were also told on Thursday that about 800 awards and contracts administered through the agency were being canceled.... The moves also came just one day before almost all of the agency's direct hires, including its roster of Foreign Service officers, will be put on indefinite administrative leave. In addition, almost all contractors will see their work orders terminated. Foreign Service officers will have 30 days to return to the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who took control of U.S.A.I.D. as acting administrator on Monday, insisted during a Fox News interview this week that the takeover was 'not about getting rid of foreign aid.... But now we have rank insubordination,' he said, adding that U.S.A.I.D. employees had been 'completely uncooperative, so we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.'" An AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Pardon my lack of imagination, but I have a hard time picturing healthcare workers and food distributors and disaster relief workers of rising up against their bosses and showing "rank insubordination" without cause. ~~~

~~~ Shannon Bond, et al., of NPR: "Unions representing foreign service officers and federal employees at the United States Agency for International Development are suing the Trump administration to halt efforts to dismantle the agency and freeze foreign aid.... The lawsuit argues only Congress can dissolve the agency and calls the Trump administration's actions 'unconstitutional and illegal.' The unions are asking the court to block efforts to shut down USAID operations and put staff on leave, to restore funding and to reopen the agency's offices." ~~~

~~~ Missy Ryan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's abrupt decision to repatriate the U.S. Agency for International Development's overseas workforce has thrust the agency's global staff into chaos and despair, as workers scramble to uproot their lives and brace for what they fear will be a shutdown of all American aid missions in 30 days.... These employees, some assigned to dangerous 'hardship' posts, are attempting to navigate that process with little information from the Trump administration and while many are locked out of all agency computer systems." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Read through this report, and see if you think these aid workers seem like people who showed in "rank insubordination," or as Elon Musk asserted, were participating in a "criminal" organization. ~~~

~~~ Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development ... threatens billions of dollars the agency spends on American businesses and organizations, global development experts and industry representatives told The Washington Post.... Billions of [USAID] dollars flowed back into the American economy until ... Donald Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on foreign-aid spending last month. Now U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo. That includes American farms, which supply about 41 percent of the food aid that the agency, working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sends around the world each year, according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service.” MB: I'll bet many farmers affected by the dismantling of USAID voted for Trump. Trump promised to break everything, and they didn't think he meant them, too. ~~~

~~~ Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: "Private-sector employers and nonprofits are starting to lay off workers as a result of the Trump administration's sweeping cuts and funding freezes, unleashing a wave of job losses that economists say could pick up steam in the coming weeks, threatening the broader labor market.... More than 7.5 million Americans work in jobs directly connected to the federal government, according to the Brookings Institution, as contractors or grant workers -- some of whom are already out of a job. And there are millions more who work in positions indirectly connected to federal funding delays.... Still, the labor market remains strong, and economists say it could take weeks or months before government-related job losses show up in national data." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: "... dozens ... [of clinical trials] have been abruptly frozen, leaving people around the world with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies, cut off from the researchers who were monitoring them, and generating waves of suspicion and fear. The State Department, which now oversees U.S.A.I.D., replied to a request for comment by directing a reporter to USAID.gov, which no longer contains any information except that all permanent employees have been placed on administrative leave. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the agency is wasteful and advances a liberal agenda that is counter to ... [Donald] Trump's foreign policy. In interviews, scientists -- who are forbidden by the terms of the stop-work order to speak with the news media -- described agonizing choices: violate the stop-work orders and continue to care for trial volunteers, or leave them alone to face potential side effects and harm." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "As the Trump administration this week dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development..., the White House issued a statement justifying its actions. Titled 'At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep,' the news release claimed USAID 'has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous -- and, in many cases, malicious -- pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.' The news release then listed 12 examples, plucked from the websites of right-wing media. But the numbers cited -- as low as $32,000 -- hardly justify the claim that these are 'massive sums' of money. In fact, they are so low that some of the funds appear to have been awarded at the ambassador level, without Washington involvement. At least one dated from the first Trump administration, and some were actually State Department grants, not USAID.... Only one claim -- out of 12 -- was accurate."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Senate voted along party lines on Thursday to confirm Russell T. Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, putting in place one of the most powerful architects of ... [Donald] Trump's agenda to upend the federal bureaucracy and slash spending that the administration thinks is wasteful. The 53-to-47 vote returns Mr. Vought to the White House budget office that he also led during Mr. Trump's first term.... Mr. Vought emerged as one of Mr. Trump's most contentious nominees, drawing intense backlash from Senate Democrats who described him as a lawless ideologue. They used every legislative tool at their disposal to delay his confirmation vote, commandeering the Senate floor on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning to make the case against him.... During his confirmation hearing last month, Mr. Vought dodged questions about whether Mr. Trump would follow the will of Congress, which authorizes federal spending, but made clear that Mr. Trump intended to test the law."

Juliet Macur of the New York Times: "Transgender women will be barred from competing in N.C.A.A. women's college sports, the sports organization announced on Thursday, a day after ... [Donald] Trump effectively forced the decision by reversing federal policy. That decision, effective immediately, followed Mr. Trump's signing of an executive order asking his agencies to withdraw federal funding from educational institutions if they defied him and let transgender girls and women compete.... The N.C.A.A.'s previous policy on transgender athletes left the decision up to each sport's national governing body. The rules varied by sport, especially as to how much testosterone could remain in a transgender woman's blood following hormone therapy."

I don’t think that Americans have accepted that anyone should be above the law in America. Our equality as people was the foundation of our society and of our constitution. -- Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaking in Louisville, Kentucky ~~~

~~~ Bruce Schreiner of the AP: “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said her conservative colleagues are risking the court's legitmacy with decisions affording ... Donald Trump broad immunity and overturning longstanding precedents on other issues. In her first public comments since Trump began his second term in the White House, Sotomayor told a Kentucky audience that the court has gone too far, too fast on a range of issues. She cited the Trump case during a lengthy response to a question about sagging public confidence in the court. Sotomayor issued a stinging dissent in that case, and she didn't hold back Wednesday night in discussing public perceptions of the court following its historic 6-3 decision on the immunity question. The court's conservative majority, with three justices appointed by Trump in his first term, ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution."

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Texas. Robert Downen of the Texas Tribune: "A Houston man who was recently pardoned by ... Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has been arrested on an outstanding child sex crimes charge. Andrew Taake, 36, was taken into custody on Thursday after spending more than two weeks as a fugitive, the Harris County District Attorney's Office said He had previously been charged with online solicitation of a minor stemming from a 2016 incident in which he allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to an undercover law enforcement officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl. Taake was among the roughly 1,600 people, including 120 Texans, who were charged for their roles in the U.S. Capitol riot, which ultimately resulted in five deaths, injuries to 140 police officers, at least $2.8 million in damage and roughly 1,575 federal criminal cases." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is not the first story you've seen and it won't be the last about unrelated law-breaking & alleged law-breaking by criminals Donald Trump pardoned. Criminal supporters of Donald Trump often are not just criminals for a day. Criming, in its varied forms, is what they do.

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Panama. Malu Cursino of BBC News: "Panama has denied making changes to allow US government vessels to transit the Panama Canal for free, following White House claims it had agreed to such a move. The State Department said in a statement on X that its government vessels 'can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year'. Responding to the comments, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said it was 'empowered to set tolls and other fees for transiting the canal,' adding that it had 'not made any adjustments to them'." Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

CNBC: "Job creation was lower than expected in January, though the unemployment rate edged down and worker wages rose sharply, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls climbed by a seasonally adjusted 143,000 for the month, down from an upwardly revised 307,000 in December and below the 169,000 forecast from Dow Jones. The unemployment rate nudged lower to 4%. The report also featured significant benchmark revisions to the 2024 totals that saw substantial downward changes to the previous payrolls level though upward revisions to those who reported holding jobs."

The Conversation -- February 6, 2025

Olivia George, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Massachusetts paused the deadline for the Trump administration's buyout program for federal workers Thursday afternoon, two days after unions representing more than 800,000 federal workers asked the court to halt the program, calling it an 'arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum.' U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. set another hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. for full arguments."

Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Agents of billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have gained access to highly restricted government records on millions of federal employees -- including Treasury and State Department officials in sensitive security positions -- as part of a broader effort to gain control over the government's main personnel agency, according to four U.S. officials with knowledge of the developments. The officials ... expressed alarm about potential breaches or abuses of such records by members of an administration whose senior-most officials, including ... Donald Trump, have threatened to retaliate against federal workers accused of disloyalty. The records maintained by the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, amount to a repository of sensitive information about employees of most federal agencies -- including addresses, demographic profiles, salary details and disciplinary histories. The moves at the OPM by members of Musk's pseudo-governmental DOGE have coincided with similar efforts to gain access to sensitive systems at other agencies...."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blasted ... Donald Trump's commitment to the rule of law, saying he is trampling the Constitution to pursue 'political or personal gain.' U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour offered his commentary while becoming the second federal judge in two days to issue a nationwide injunction that blocks the Trump administration from moving forward on an executive order aimed at curbing birthright citizenship. Coughenour had eviscerated the executive order as 'blatantly unconstitutional' during a hearing two weeks ago in the lawsuit brought by a coalition of four Democratic-led states. In Thursday's court session, Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, criticized Trump in direct and unsparing terms moments after Justice Department lawyers had finished arguing that the order was constitutional."

Don't Worry About Elon -- He's So Ethical He's Policing Himself. Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that Elon Musk ... is in charge of excusing himself when he comes across conflicts of interest pertaining to his businesses during the White House press briefing on Wednesday. 'The president was already asked and answered this question this week, and he said if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,' answered Leavitt. 'And he has again abided by all applicable laws.'"

Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: "Private-sector employers and nonprofits are starting to lay off workers as a result of the Trump administration's sweeping cuts and funding freezes, unleashing a wave of job losses that economists say could pick up steam in the coming weeks, threatening the broader labor market.... More than 7.5 million Americans work in jobs directly connected to the federal government, according to the Brookings Institution, as contractors or grant workers -- some of whom are already out of a job. And there are millions more who work in positions indirectly connected to federal funding delays.... Still, the labor market remains strong, and economists say it could take weeks or months before government-related job losses show up in national data."

Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: "... dozens ... [of clinical trials] have been abruptly frozen, leaving people around the world with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies, cut off from the researchers who were monitoring them, and generating waves of suspicion and fear. The State Department, which now oversees U.S.A.I.D., replied to a request for comment by directing a reporter to USAID.gov, which no longer contains any information except that all permanent employees have been placed on administrative leave. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the agency is wasteful and advances a liberal agenda that is counter to ... [Donald] Trump's foreign policy. In interviews, scientists -- who are forbidden by the terms of the stop-work order to speak with the news media -- described agonizing choices: violate the stop-work orders and continue to care for trial volunteers, or leave them alone to face potential side effects and harm."

Am! Are Not! Am Too! Aaron Boxerman of the New York Times: Donald "Trump on Thursday defended his proposal for the United States to take charge of postwar Gaza and resettle its Palestinian residents, but stressed that he would not deploy U.S. troops to the enclave, as Israel's defense minister announced that he had ordered the military to draft a plan to allow people to voluntarily leave. The developments add to a swirl of confusion over the proposal by Mr. Trump to 'take over' the Gaza Strip and for the roughly two million Palestinians living there to move elsewhere. The forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international humanitarian law, a war crime and a crime against humanity, experts say. Mr. Trump's plan has already provoked furious opposition around the world, with some critics likening it to ethnic cleansing.... Some of Mr. Trump's aides had sought to soften the president's ideas on Wednesday evening. But in an early morning social media post, Mr. Trump doubled down, saying that the United States and its partners were prepared to build 'one of the greatest and most spectacular developments' on the planet in Gaza once Israel ceded control there."

Malu Cursino of BBC News: "Panama has denied making changes to allow US government vessels to transit the Panama Canal for free, following White House claims it had agreed to such a move. The State Department said in a statement on X that its government vessels 'can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year'. Responding to the comments, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said it was 'empowered to set tolls and other fees for transiting the canal,' adding that it had 'not made any adjustments to them'." Thanks to RAS for the lead.

Well, everything's going according to plan over there at Pete's Department of Defense of White Men & Drinking Society. ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Campos in LG&$ digs up a memo, via Ken Klippenstein, from DOD Defense Intelligence Agency (a misnomer if there ever was one) instructing all DIA personnel to immediately suspend all those nasty DEI observances, like MLK Jr. Day, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pride Day & Women's Equality Day. Two of the now-very-unspecial days -- MLK L. Day & Juneteenth -- are national holidays, so I'm not sure how DIA personnel will get around observing those. But I'm sure they can be flexible! Meanwhile, the Navy is cancelling all sexual assault prevention & response training, because, I don't know, women and gays or something. Thanks to RAS for the link.

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It Was Just Another Crazy Trump Blooper. Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "When ... [Donald] Trump announced his proposal for the United States to take ownership of Gaza on Tuesday..., his administration had not done even the most basic planning to examine the feasibility of the idea, according to four people.... Soon before they walked out for their joint news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump surprised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel by telling him he planned to announce the Gaza ownership idea, according to two people.... While his announcement looked formal and thought-out -- he read the plan from a sheet of paper -- inside the U.S. government, there had been no meetings with the State Department or Pentagon, as would normally occur for any serious foreign policy proposal, let alone one of such magnitude. There had been no working groups. The Defense Department had produced no estimates of the troop numbers required, or cost estimates, or even an outline of how it might work. There was little beyond an idea inside the president's head." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Inside Donald Trump's head is THE last place in the world even the most inconsequential policy matter should be formed.

     ~~~ Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: No, no, it was all quite sensible & calculated: "At its root, officials said, this suggestion was intended in part to spur action on an issue Trump viewed as moribund, with no other nations offering reasonable solutions for how to rebuild an area that has been obliterated by Israeli bombardment.... 'The president has said he's been socialing this idea for quite some time. He's been thinking about this,' his press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday." MB: The most jarring news here is that we have a White House press secretary who thinks "social" is a verb. ~~~

~~~ Gaza Riviera? Never Mind. From the New York Times' live updates Wednesday of developments in Israel's wars, also linked earlier Wednesday: "Top Trump administration officials on Wednesday walked back elements of ... [Donald] Trump's proposal to 'take over' Gaza and drive out the Palestinian population, insisting that he had not committed to using U.S. troops to clear the territory and that any relocation of Palestinians would be temporary. Mr. Trump's brazen proposal to move as many as two million Palestinians out of Gaza and seize and redevelop it as a U.S. territory met with immediate opposition on Wednesday from key American partners and officials around the world, with many expressing support for a Palestinian state, and experts calling the idea a breach of international law.... Speaking to reporters in Guatemala, Secretary of State Marco Rubio twice suggested that Mr. Trump was only proposing to clear out and rebuild Gaza, not claim indefinite possession of the territory. Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, told Republican senators at a closed-door luncheon that Mr. Trump 'doesn't want to put any U.S. troops on the ground, and he doesn't want to spend any U.S. dollars at all' on Gaza, according to Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. And at the White House, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said 'the president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza.'..." (Also linked yesterday.) A Washington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's handlers should tell the truth, beginning the walk-backs with, "Look, the guy is incredibly stupid and corrupt...."

~~~ Joey Cappelletti of the AP: "A group that played a key role in Donald Trump's voter outreach to the Arab American community alongside his allies is rebranding itself after the president said that the U.S. would 'take over' the Gaza Strip. Bishara Bahbah, chairman of the group formerly known as Arab Americans for Trump, said during a phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that the group would now be called Arab Americans for Peace. The name change came after Trump held a Tuesday press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House and proposed the U.S. take 'ownership' in redeveloping the area into 'the Riviera of the Middle East.'" MB: That's your response, Mr. Bahbah??? To try to hide what you did to destroy this country by erasing Trump's name? Where's that apology you owe us all??? Even for single-issue voters like you, all it took to figure out Kamala Harris would have been better for you than Trump was to casually read a newspaper. Shame on you. ~~~

~~~ Joey Cappelletti & Mike Householder of the AP: "Residents of the largest Arab American community in the U.S. had plenty to say during the 2024 presidential campaign about the roiling politics in the Middle East. But after ... Donald Trump's stunning announcement on Tuesday that he wanted to remove Palestinians from Gaza and impose a U.S. takeover in the region, some leaders in Dearborn, Michigan, were treading far more cautiously.... But many are struggling to come to terms with the audacious plan Trump announced Tuesday.... Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate in over two decades to win Dearborn, where Arab Americans make up close to half of the city's 110,000 residents." ~~~

~~~ Digby: "Donald Trump and his family have clearly had their eyes on the real estate development possibilities in the Gaza strip for quite some time.... Fortunately for Trump Israel has already done the demolition work for them so it's just that sticky matter of getting rid of the people who live there.... [Tuesday,] standing next to the Prime Minister of Israel who nodded along like a demented marionette, Trump said that the US would take over the Gaza strip and assume a 'long term ownership position.'... He says that the US will level it and then build new buildings that will supply jobs for the people of the area. Not Palestinians, though. They'll be living in their beautiful piece of land (or pieces, as many as 10 or 12) in other countries. According to Trump, this has been discussed at length and that everyone loves the idea of the United States owning that land and developing it into something magnificent.... And for the piece de resistance after going on and on for years about America First and not wanting to get involved in 'forever wars', he just committed sending US troops into the most fraught forever war on the planet.... Everyone knows that as demented as he sounds half the time, he's still the guy with the nuclear codes." ~~~

~~~ David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump, who said he wanted to end Middle East wars, is stumbling toward a dangerous new entanglement with his talk of expelling Palestinians from Gaza and seizing the territory for the United States.... For a Middle East that is just recovering from the trauma of 15 month of war, Trump's suggestion of a U.S. takeover of Gaza was incendiary.... Concerns about the jaw-dropping proposal were so swift and sharp on Wednesday that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rushed to clarify that Trump didn't plan to pay for that project or send in U.S. troops.... The Gaza bombshell is also creating worries about domestic protests or worse in the United States.... On Wednesday, a group called the Cyber Islamic Resistance was circulating a call for cyberattacks on U.S. banks in protest against Trump's announcement...."

Hannah Natanson & Laura Meckler of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that aims to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls' and women's sports teams by denying federal funds for schools that allow it.... It's the latest salvo in Trump's attack on transgender rights, adding to previous actions that are already ricocheting through school districts and college campuses across the country.... Trump's orders represent a sharp assertion of presidential power, in particular his threat to pull federal funding from districts that teach about gender, as well as race, in ways he doesn't like." (Also linked yesterday.)

Frank Langfitt of NPR: "Late last week, a national museum literally papered over history. Responding to ... [Donald] Trump's order that terminated diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the federal government, the National Cryptologic Museum taped sheets of paper over plaques that celebrate women and people of color who had served the National Security Agency, which intercepts overseas conversations and breaks foreign government codes. The honorees are described as 'Trailblazers in U.S. Cryptologic History,' and the plaques hang in the museum's Hall of Honor.... Many former NSA workers were furious. The museum uncovered the plaques and said Sunday on X that it had made a mistake."

Charlie Savage & Lazaro Gamio of the New York Times: "Other presidents have occasionally claimed a constitutional right to bypass particular laws. But in the opening weeks of his second term..., [Donald] Trump and his administration have opened the throttle on blowing through apparent legal limits, often with no clear public explanation for how their actions could be consistent with the rule of law. Already some of Mr. Trump's moves have prompted legal challenges, though the administration may be betting on rulings in its favor with a Republican-appointed Supreme Court supermajority. Here are some examples of the administration's defiance of statutes."

David Corn of Mother Jones: "... the Office of Personnel Management, now being overseen by Elon Musk and his minions, just issued a memo, which was obtained by Mother Jones, to all heads and acting heads of federal agencies asking them to request a change in the status of CIOs [-- chief information officers -- ] from 'senior executive service' and 'career reserved' to 'general.' This means Musk could move to take over the IT of the entire federal government by placing cronies and ideologues into these key posts.... If OPM succeeds in reclassifying the status of CIOs, Musk -- or someon else -- could gain control of the lifeblood of any modern organization: its IT."

Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: "Representatives of billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency fanned out across several agencies Wednesday, sending representatives to the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and meeting with the Labor Department, seeking access to sensitive data. The moves came on the heels of the DOGE team gaining access to sensitive health payment systems at the Department of Health and Human Services. As federal workers braced for possible layoffs after a Thursday deadline that has led to at least 40,000 employees taking a buyout, DOGE staffers met with agencies facing sweeping cuts in a project that has gutted whole programs and given Musk's team broad access to private data. In a little more than two weeks, the Trump megadonor -- acting as a 'special government employee' while still running the companies that have made him the richest man in the world -- has probed all over for cuts and begun enacting some....

"On Wednesday, several labor unions sought a restraining order to keep Musk's team away from the Labor Department, arguing that DOGE's work was illegal and has 'already been catastrophic.'... Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee blocked Democrats' bid to subpoena Musk, with the panel's GOP leaders dismissing Democrats' protests that an unelected billionaire should not be able to dismantle the bureaucracy without lawmakers' consent."

Jennifer Bahney of the Raw Story: "Elon Musk's desire to slash and burn his way through government spending is now taking aim at Medicare and Medicaid, according to a report published Wednesday. A Wall Street Journal headline announced, 'DOGE Aides Search Medicare Agency Payment Systems for Fraud.' The story went on to say, 'Representatives of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have been working at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS], where they have gotten access to key payment and contracting systems, according to people familiar with the matter.'... Musk ... [wrote on X,] 'Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening.'"

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "A White House spokesman told The New York Times on Monday that [Elon] Musk has been given [the] status as a special government employee, but no official records have been released documenting it.... As a special government employee, Mr. Musk is subject to a federal criminal law that blocks him from taking action in a 'particular matter' that has a direct benefit to his own financial interest or that of his family, unless he has received a special waiver from the federal government.... The ban would also limit Mr. Musk's ability to intervene with federal agencies on behalf of any of his companies.... The law would require Mr. Musk, even as a special government employee, to file a financial disclosure that details all of his assets and sources of income.... [Former White House ethics lawyer Norman] Eisen said that even if Mr. Musk is now designated as a special government employee and received an exemption at the proper time..., [his] involvement in federal government operations appears to have been so extensive in recent weeks that it goes far beyond the traditional definition of a special government employee, Mr. Eisen said." ~~~

~~~ Walter Shaub in the Contrarian: "... whether [Elon Musk] is a regular government employee, a 'special government employee,' or a volunteer, the primary conflict of interest statute prohibits him from ... work[ing] on any particular matter affecting a company in which he holds either stock or any other form of ownership interest. Musk might seek a waiver of conflicts laws..., [but] the waiver cannot be issued retroactively.... The conflict of interest law applicable to federal officials is a criminal law.... Trump administration officials owe Americans answers about Musk's status.... The names of the mysterious DOGE affiliates running around with the black backpacks, their employment status, and their background investigation status are also among the details that the administration has concealed from us."

Michael Bender, et al., of the New York Times: Donald "Trump's administration deepened its pressure campaign on government employees to resign before a Thursday deadline, rattling and angering a civil service steeling itself for a prolonged battle with Elon Musk and his ongoing foray into the federal bureaucracy. With hours dwindling for workers to decide whether or not to quit, agency officials held last-minute meetings to walk their teams through a dizzying barrage of emails detailing the offer to leave their jobs -- and to urge them to take the deal.... On Wednesday, Mr. Musk proudly proclaimed his team's advance into another federal agency, announcing that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency ... would 'make rapid safety upgrades' to the nation's air traffic control system. The announcement came as investigators continued their probe into the Jan. 29 crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet that killed 67 people.

"Mr. Musk's team was also spotted at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where they obtained access to the agency's computer systems to search for programs and staff tied to diversity policies that the Trump administration has vowed to stamp out.... The access came as some climate data disappeared from NOAA's website, prompting concern that political staff had interfered. Project 2025, a conservative think tank's policy blueprint for Republicans, identified NOAA as 'one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry' and called for the agency to be dismantled."

Our payment system is not being touched. -- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, lying on Fox "News" ~~~

~~~ Andrew Duehren, et al., of the New York Times: "In the days after President Trump took office, as Elon Musk's team began pressing for access to the Treasury Department's payments system, officials repeatedly said that their goal was to undertake a general review of the system. They said they would observe, but not stop money from going out the door. But emails reviewed by The New York Times show that the Treasury's chief of staff originally pushed for Tom Krause, a software executive affiliated with Mr. Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, to receive access to the closely held payment system so that the Treasury could freeze U.S. Agency for International Development payments.... The emails viewed by The Times undercut the Treasury's explanation for why Mr. Krause and his team were given access to the payment system last week.... [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent, in an interview on Wednesday with the Fox Business Network, defended DOGE's work and dismissed the suggestion that the Treasury's payment system was compromised." ~~~

~~~ Daniel Barnes, et al., of NBC News: "Attorneys for the Justice Department have agreed to temporarily restrict staffers associated with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing information in the Treasury Department's payment system. The agreement comes after a group of union members and retirees sued the Treasury Department alleging that providing DOGE access to the federal government's massive payment and collections system -- and the personal data housed in it -- violated federal privacy laws. The Trump administration filed a motion Wednesday night seeking to enter a proposed order that detailed the agreed-upon terms. 'The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,' the proposed order says. The order would allow exceptions for two special government employees at the Treasury -- Tom Krause and Marko Elez -- saying they are permitted access 'as needed' to perform their duties, 'provided that such access to payment records will be "read only."'" MB: Both Krause & Elez are Musk acolytes.

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday told an official with the United States Agency for International Development that foreign aid was 'the least popular thing government spends money on' and had become increasingly difficult to defend, according to a transcript of a private embassy event. Mr. Rubio sought to explain his support for the Trump administration's systematic dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. during a question-and-answer session he held at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, one day after thousands of agency workers overseas learned that they were being placed on administrative leave and must return home to the United States.... Some of what Mr. Rubio said reflected public remarks he has made in recent days, but at moments during the embassy event he appeared to speak with some sympathy for the agency.... 'I know it's hard to ask for patience,' he told [the USAID mission director for Guatemala]. 'I know it's hard to ask for trust, because you've never met me before. I've never been in charge of the State Department. I've never been acting U.S.A.I.D. administrator before.'"

As the Witch Hunts. Jeremy Roebuck & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Pam Bondi spent her first day on the job Wednesday redirecting the Justice Department's significant law enforcement authority toward addressing ... Donald Trump's grievances with the agency, making her allegiance to his agenda clear in a series of strongly worded directives. Despite pledging during her confirmation hearing that 'politics will not play a part' in her decision-making, Bondi, within hours of taking office, created a 'Weaponization Working Group' to review instances of what she described as 'politicized justice' -- starting with the federal criminal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith. She also ordered an examination of what she alleged was federal cooperation in the criminal and civil investigations of Trump in New York -- even though they were carried out by state authorities, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Other directives she signed ended the federal moratorium on the death penalty, paused federal justice grant funding for sanctuary cities, and demanded 'zealous advocacy' of the president's agenda from the department's more than 10,000 lawyers." CNN's story is here. ~~~

~~~ No Surprise Here. Michael Schmidt & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it would not bring charges against anyone affiliated with the group Project Veritas over their role in trying to publish the contents of a diary that had been stolen from Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s daughter in the final weeks of the 2020 election campaign. The prosecutors, who made their announcement in a one-paragraph letter to a judge overseeing the matter, did not say why they were declining to bring additional charges in the long running investigation.... Project Veritas and its founder, James O'Keefe, have long been favorites of Mr. Trump's and gained attention by using sting operations and undercover videos to seek to embarrass liberal groups and mainstream news organizations, among others." MB: The writers try to present this as business-as-usual, but of course it is not. It obviously is part of the Trump/Bondi selective prosecution project.

Meet Your CIA Spy! David Sanger amp; Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The C.I.A. sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries. The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires, who are still on probation -- and thus easy to dismiss. It included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and those identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.... One former agency officer called the reporting of the names in an unclassified email a 'counterintelligence disaster.'... Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, wrote in a social media post that the sharing of the officers' names was 'a disastrous national security development.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Jonathan Allen &am; Courtney Kube of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's administration evicted former Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan from her home with three hours of notice on Tuesday -- not even enough time to gather her personal effects -- according to two people familiar with the incident. Fagan, a four-star admiral and the first woman to lead a branch of the military, was removed from her post as the Coast Guard's top officer on Trump's second day in office. Officials at the Homeland Security Department -- which oversees the Coast Guard -- cited border security issues and an 'excessive focus' on diversity, equity and inclusion among the reasons for her dismissal. Fagan, who was named commandant in 2022, made a convenient target for a new president who wanted to flex his muscle." ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "More than anything else, Trump, Elon et al. are insecure bullies[.]... Well, to be Scrupulously Fair their misogyny might trump even their pettiness."

David Nakamura & Silvia Foster-Frau of the Washington Post: "A federal judge Tuesday indefinitely blocked ... Donald Trump's effort to curb birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreigners with temporary visas, a decision that is likely to mean the executive order will not take effect as planned this month. U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman issued a preliminary injunction after a court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups aiming to stop Trump's order on the grounds that it violates the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. The injunction applies nationally and will remain in place as the case is adjudicated. The Maryland lawsuit is one of at least six federal cases brought against Trump's order by a total of 22 Democratic-led states and more than a half-dozen civil rights groups. A federal judge in Seattle previously issued a 14-day restraining order." (Also linked yesterday.)

Concerned® Alert! Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "'There's no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I think is appropriate,' [Sen. Susan] Collins [R-Maine] told reporters. 'I think a lot of it is going to end up in court.... I am concerned if the Trump administration is clawing back money that has been specifically appropriated for a particular purpose.'... Collins, the last Republican senator from New England, is also the chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and has oversight over the spending that Musk has now seemed to wrangle control over."

Jake Johnson of Common Dreams: "Democrats took turns speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate into the early hours of Thursday morning in a show of opposition to ... Donald Trump's pick to lead the White House budget office and the new administration's lawless broadside against key federal agencies -- an assault led by unelected billionaire Elon Musk. Facing growing pressure to use every tool available to obstruct an administration that they have characterized as authoritarian, Democratic senators are expected to take up all 30 hours of debate on Russell Vought, a right-wing extremist and Project 2025 architect who is poised to take charge of the Office of Management and Budget. Unless Democrats give in and grant unanimous consent (UC) to end debate -- as they've done with other Trump nominees in recent days -- a vote on Vought's confirmation won't take place until Thursday evening. As of this writing, the Democratic speeches are still going."

Sara Ruberg of the New York Times: "Thousands of people on Wednesday turned out across the U.S. to protest ... [Donald] Trump's flurry of early actions, denouncing his plans for mass deportations, his attacks on diversity initiatives and his efforts to restrict transgender rights. The demonstrations, which popped up in major cities and state capitals in more than a dozen states, appear to have been spurred online, with word spreading via hashtags such as '#BuildtheResistance.' They were loosely organized under an unofficial tagline -- 50501, to represent a goal of 50 protests in 50 states on one day, according to various websites and social media accounts. Most demonstrations began in the afternoon at Capitol buildings and at city halls." ~~~

~~~ The video below is an unauthorized copy of last night's Rachel Maddow show, so it will probably be taken down. If you can access MSNBC via your cable provider, you can watch the previous evening's show by starting here. (This requires going through some folderol to get there, but it works [and I think it leaves you permanently logged in on the computer/phone you're using, so you don't have to go through the dance every time].) Also Julie in Massachusetts sent me a short video (which I haven't the technical expertise to share) of the protest in Boston. ~~~

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: Donald "Trump persuaded several Fox News hosts to leave the network and take up major roles in his administration. Now Lara Trump, Mr. Trump's daughter-in-law and a former co-chair of the Republican Party, will begin hosting a new weekend show on Fox News on Feb. 22, the network announced on Wednesday.... There is no precedent for the close relative of a sitting president to host a high-profile show on a major television news channel.... Ms. Trump ... worked for several years as a producer on 'Inside Edition,' and served as an on-air contributor to Fox News from March 2021 to December 2022." MB: Did the U.S. end up with a drunken misogynist running the Pentagon just so Lara could get a job at Fox??

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: "The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday released the transcript of a '60 Minutes' interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that has been at the center of a lawsuit between CBS and ... [Donald] Trump. The transcript of the interview shows that Ms. Harris gave a lengthy answer to a question about Benjamin Netanyahu.... About 21 seconds of that answer was aired in a preview of the interview on 'Face the Nation.' A different seven-second part of the answer aired the next day in an episode of '60 Minutes.' After the interview aired, Mr. Trump sued CBS in Texas, claiming that '60 Minutes' deceptively edited the interview in order to interfere with the election. But ... it's common practice for news organizations to include an excerpt from a full interview in news articles or TV broadcasts for the sake of concision.... The F.C.C.'s chairman, Brendan Carr, had requested a transcript of the interview after a news distortion complaint was lodged with that agency. Mr. Carr has said that complaint could come up in the agency's review of a multibillion-dollar merger of Paramount, CBS's parent company, with Skydance.... Anna M. Gomez, a Democratic commissioner on the F.C.C., said in a statement that the transcript and raw footage of the interview 'provide no evidence' that CBS violated F.C.C. rules."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Harry Stewart Jr., who flew 43 missions over Europe as a fighter pilot and was among the last surviving combat veterans of the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-Black squadron in the segregated U.S. military during World War II, died Feb. 2 at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He was 100."

The Conversation -- February 5, 2025

Gaza Riviera? Never Mind. From the New York Times' live updates Wednesday of developments in Israel's wars, also linked earlier Wednesday: "Top Trump administration officials on Wednesday walked back elements of ... [Donald] Trump's proposal to 'take over' Gaza and drive out the Palestinian population, insisting that he had not committed to using U.S. troops to clear the territory and that any relocation of Palestinians would be temporary. Mr. Trump's brazen proposal to move as many as two million Palestinians out of Gaza and seize and redevelop it as a U.S. territory met with immediate opposition on Wednesday from key American partners and officials around the world, with many expressing support for a Palestinian state, and experts calling the idea a breach of international law.... Speaking to reporters in Guatemala, Secretary of State Marco Rubio twice suggested that Mr. Trump was only proposing to clear out and rebuild Gaza, not claim indefinite possession of the territory. Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, told Republican senators at a closed-door luncheon that Mr. Trump 'doesn't want to put any U.S. troops on the ground, and he doesn't want to spend any U.S. dollars at all' on Gaza, according to Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. And at the White House, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said 'the president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza.'..." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's handlers should tell the truth, beginning the walk-backs with, "Look, the guy is incredibly stupid and corrupt...."

Hannah Natanson & Laura Meckler of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that aims to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls' and women's sports teams by denying federal funds for schools that allow it.... It's the latest salvo in Trump's attack on transgender rights, adding to previous actions that are already ricocheting through school districts and college campuses across the country.... Trump's orders represent a sharp assertion of presidential power, in particular his threat to pull federal funding from districts that teach about gender, as well as race, in ways he doesn't like."

David Sanger & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The C.I.A. sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries. The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires, who are still on probation and thus easy to dismiss. It included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.... One former agency officer called the reporting of the names in an unclassified email a 'counterintelligence disaster.'... Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, wrote in a social media post that the sharing of the officers' names was 'a disastrous national security development.'"

David Nakamura & Silvia Foster-Frau of the Washington Post: "A federal judge Tuesday indefinitely blocked ... Donald Trump's effort to curb birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreigners with temporary visas, a decision that is likely to mean the executive order will not take effect as planned this month. U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman issued a preliminary injunction after a court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups aiming to stop Trump's order on the grounds that it violates the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. The injunction applies nationally and will remain in place as the case is adjudicated. The Maryland lawsuit is one of at least six federal cases brought against Trump's order by a total of 22 Democratic-led states and more than a half-dozen civil rights groups. A federal judge in Seattle previously issued a 14-day restraining order."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: For the first time I can recall (though it might have happened during Nixon's tenure), the New York Times' headline implies the POTUS* is IN-sane. AND the report's author is the famously both-sides writer Peter Baker. ~~~

⭐"With Gaza Plan, an Unbound Trump Pushes an Improbable Idea." Peter Baker of the New York Times: Donald "Trump basked as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel praised his 'willingness to think outside the box.' But when it came to Gaza, Mr. Trump's thinking on Tuesday was so far outside the box that it was not clear he even knew there was a box. Mr. Trump's announcement that he intends to seize control of Gaza, displace the Palestinian population and turn the coastal enclave into 'the Riviera of the Middle East' was the kind of thing he might have said to get a rise on 'The Howard Stern Show' a decade or two ago. Provocative, intriguing, outlandish, outrageous -- and not at all presidential. But now in his sequel term in the White House, Mr. Trump is advancing ever-more brazen ideas about redrawing the map of the world in the tradition of 19th-century imperialism. First there was buying Greenland, then annexing Canada, reclaiming the Panama Canal and renaming the Gulf of Mexico. And now he envisions taking over a devastated war zone in the Middle East that no other American president would want." MB: I think this is a gift link. If not, I apologize. ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: Donald "Trump declared on Tuesday that the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced in years. Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Mr. Trump said that all two million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel's campaign against Hamas.... 'The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,' Mr. Trump said at a news conference Tuesday evening. 'We'll own it and be responsible' for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism." An AP story is here.

~~~ Unbelievable! Here are the New York Times' live updates of Trump administration developments including Donald Trump's meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu: ~~~

Michael Shear, et al.: "... [Donald] Trump proposed on Tuesday that the United States take over Gaza and that all Palestinians there -- some two million people -- should leave, describing a permanent relocation to one or more sites funded by 'countries of interest with humanitarian hearts.' As he hosted Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for a joint news conference in the White House, Mr. Trump said that he has studied the conditions in Gaza and his idea to seize and develop it has gotten 'tremendous' support from the 'highest of leadership' as a viable plan to bring peace to the Middle East."

Peter Baker: "Trump has now added Gaza to his growing list of territories that he wants to seize around the world, along with Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.... Trump again takes full credit for a cease-fire deal that was first put on the table and painstakingly negotiated by Biden and his team. 'We weren't helped very much by the Biden administration, I'll tell you that,' Trump says.... Trump makes clear that he sees Gaza as a new U.S. territory, saying it would be a 'long-term ownership position.' He doesn't answer the question about what legal authority would allow him to simply take over sovereign territory.... Trump seems to be picking up an idea advanced last year by Jared Kushner, his son-in-law who said that 'Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable.'" MB: Indeed, he said Gaza could become "the Riviera of the Middle East."

Erica Green: "Since taking office, Trump has talked about Gaza more like a real estate developer than a world leader confronting a major conflict. Tonight, it's become clear why. He just repeatedly referenced taking over the enclave, developing it and creating 'thousands and thousands of jobs.' It is unclear who would benefit from those jobs if the people who live there are forced to leave." (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: So the plan is that the Emperor Don will send U.S. troops to plant the U.S. flag in another country, that the soldiers will ethnically-cleanse that portion of the country, that the U.S. soldiers will force other countries in the region to absorb the 2 million people the U.S. soldiers have dispossessed, and that the soldiers then will have secured this portion of a sovereign nation for certain unnamed U.S. developers (Trump, Kushner??) to profit from developing beachfront properties in this new U.S.-owned "Riviera of the Middle East." ~~~

~~~ Frank Thorp & Raquel Uribe of NBC News: "Criticism and concern spread across both sides of the aisle Tuesday night after ... Donald Trump announced that the United States 'will take over the Gaza Strip.' Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called the proposal 'problematic,' adding that he does not think his constituents would be excited about sending U.S. soldiers to take control of Gaza.... Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., slammed the proposal as 'deranged' and 'nuts,' calling U.S. military presence in the region 'a magnet for trouble.'... Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the only Palestinian American member of Congress..., called the proposal 'ethnic cleansing' and 'fanatical bull---' on X." ~~~

     ~~~ But then there's supposed Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) who told the New York Times "that he would support a potential American occupation of the Gaza Strip...." Paul Campos in LG&$: "This guy has turned into a complete disaster. It should be unnecessary to point out that a US occupation of Gaza would make Fallujah look like a Scout jamboree." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Israel's wars are here: Donald "Trump's brazen proposal to move all Palestinians out of Gaza and make it a U.S. territory met with immediate opposition on Wednesday from key American partners and officials around the world, with many expressing support for a Palestinian state and saying that the plan would breach international law. The proposal also threatens a U.S. ambition for normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In a statement issued before 4 a.m. local time, Saudi Arabia expressed its 'unequivocal rejection' of attempts to displace Palestinians and reiterated that it would not establish diplomatic ties with Israel in the absence of an independent Palestinian state. Egypt's foreign ministry said in a separate statement that aid and recovery programs for Gaza must begin 'without the Palestinians leaving.... The Geneva Conventions prohibit the forcible relocation of populations. The United States and Israel have both ratified the conventions." ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday. ~~~

~~~ David Rising & Jon Gambrell of the AP: "... Donald Trump's proposal that the United States 'take over' the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents was swiftly rejected and denounced on Wednesday by American allies and adversaries alike.... Egypt, Jordan and other American allies in the Middle East have already rejected the idea of relocating more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza elsewhere in the region.... The prime ministers of Australia and Ireland, foreign ministries from China, New Zealand and Germany, and a Kremlin spokesman all reiterated support for a two-state solution." And so on.

~~~ In today's Comments, Akhilleus liken Trump's Gaza plan to that of one carried out by one of Trump's favorite former presidents. Marie: Akhilleus is wondering who will play Trump in the movie. I'd recommend the Welsh actor Mark Lewis Jones. It's true Jones is much better-looking that Trump, but he is very good at playing vile characters: ~~~

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Gaza peace protesters rallied Americans by the hundreds of thousands to oppose President Joe Biden and vote 'uncommitted' in Democratic primaries. They heckled Vice President Kamala Harris and disrupted her events. On Election Day, Donald Trump prevailed in the majority-Arab town of Dearborn, Michigan. And across the country, many young voters stayed home or even voted for Trump -- likely because, in part, they were disenchanted that the Biden administration had been insufficiently tough on Israel. How's that working out now?"

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: Donald "Trump said on Tuesday that he was open to an offer by El Salvador's president to jail convicted criminals, including American citizens, in the Central American nation's notorious 'megaprison.' 'If we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,' Mr. Trump said. He almost surely does not have the legal right to do it, legal experts say, and any attempt to carry out President Nayib Bukele's plan would probably be challenged in court. But Mr. Bukele's proposal to essentially turn El Salvador into a penal colony for the United States showed how far he is willing to go to define himself as Mr. Trump's primary ally in a region that the American president has disparaged. And for Mr. Trump, even musing over the proposal signaled his willingness to embrace extreme measures to show he is tough on crime and illegal immigration.... [Bukele's] proposal prompted praise from Marco Rubio, Mr. Trump's secretary of state, as well as Elon Musk...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't think Trump will send U.S. prisoners to El Salvador. That's not because he is concerned about the "legality" of it, but because U.S. private prison owners are among his big campaign contributors, and obviously they want to house prisoners in their for-profit jails.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump has opened the throttle on defying legal limits [to his authority]. 'We are well past euphemism about "pushing the limits," "stretching the envelope" and the like,' said Peter M. Shane, who is a legal scholar in residence at New York University.... The array of legal constraints Mr. Trump has violated, Mr. Shane added, amounts to 'programmatic sabotage and rampant lawlessness.' Mr. Trump has effectively nullified laws, such as by ordering the Justice Department to refrain from enforcing a ban on ... TikTok and by blocking migrants from invoking a statute allowing them to request asylum. He moved to effectively shutter a federal agency Congress created and tried to freeze congressionally approved spending, including most foreign aid. He summarily fired prosecutors, inspectors general and board members of independent agencies in defiance of legal rules against arbitrary removal.... Mr. Trump appears to have been basically operating with a philosophy that he will do whatever he wants despite any legal impediments, then fight in court if necessary. Read on. Savage also covers Congressional Republicans' "meekness" (see also Jonathan Chait on this -- linked below).

Perfect. Trump Nominates Sharpiegate Accomplice to Head NOAA. Scott Dance of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has named Neil Jacobs, an atmospheric scientist who was found to have violated scientific integrity policies during the 'Sharpiegate' scandal of the first Trump administration, to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Jacobs led NOAA on an acting basis from February 2019 through the end of Trump's first term, including when the president used a Sharpie marker to alter an official National Hurricane Center map to suggest that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama and parts of Florida outside its predicted path.... In response to Trump's [false assertions about the projected path of Dorian], Weather Service forecasters in Birmingham, Alabama, clarified on social media that the state was probably not in Dorian's path. The confusion prompted an unusual and unsigned NOAA statement in support of Trump's warnings to Alabama. An investigation found undue political influence in the process of crafting that statement, in violation of NOAA's standards for scientific integrity, but Jacobs defended the statement and admonished the Birmingham meteorologists." (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: It's been quite a long time since I've published one of my sports reports, but circumstances demand one now: ~~~

     ~~~ (1) Alayna Treene & Betsy Klein of CNN: "... Donald Trump is expected to attend Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, a White House official told CNN." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ (2) Michael Silver of the New York Times' Athletic: "According to two [NFL] sources..., league officials recently changed one of the slogans expected to be stenciled in the back of an end zone from 'End Racism' to 'Choose Love.' The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will mark the first time since February 2021 that 'End Racism' is not included as a message in the back of a Super Bowl end zone." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ I'll bet you can put (1) and (2) together.

"The Constitutional Crisis Is Here." Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: "Elon Musk, to whom Donald Trump has delegated the task of neutering the congressional spending authority laid out in Article I of the Constitution, could hardly be more obvious about his intentions if he rode into Washington on a horse trailed by Roman legions. 'This is the one shot the American people have to defeat BUREAUcracy, rule of the bureaucrats, and restore DEMOcracy, rule of the people,' Musk wrote at 3:59 a.m. today [Tuesday] on his social-media platform. 'We're never going to get another chance like this. It's now or never. Your support is crucial to the success of the revolution of the people.'... The Founders, famously, failed to anticipate the rise of political parties. They assumed that each branch of government would jealously guard its own powers, and thus check the others.... Not even the most committed small-government-conservative lawmaker would design a process like the one now occurring: a handful of political novices, many of them drinking deep from the fetid waters of right-wing conspiracy theorizing, tearing through the federal budget, making haphazard decisions about what to scrap." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. ~~~

~~~ Even Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post Gets It: "No president in history has caused more damage to the nation more quickly. As we enter Week 3 of ... Donald Trump's second term, the chaos and disruption of his first look quaint by comparison. The country survived Trump 1. Now, it faces a real threat that the harm he inflicts during his second term will be irreparable. The United States' standing in the world, its ability to keep the country safe, the federal government's fundamental capacity to operate effectively -- all of these will take years to repair, if that can be achieved at all." (Also linked yesterday.)

Paul Campos in LG&$ republishes a signficant portion of a firewalled Wired story: "A 25-year-old engineer named Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies, has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government, three sources tell Wired. Two of those sources say that Elez's privileges include the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Housed on a top-secret mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy. Despite reporting that suggests that Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force has access to these Treasury systems on a 'read-only' level, sources say Elez ... has many administrator-level privileges. Typically, those admin privileges could give someone the power to log in to servers through secure shell access, navigate the entire file system, change user permissions, and delete or modify critical files. That could allow someone to bypass the security measures of, and potentially cause irreversible changes to, the very systems they have access to." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can't figure out if Josh Marshall wrote the following post or if one of his readers did. In any event, Josh seems confident enough in its accuracy to publish it: ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM, publisher: "A 25-year-old DOGE operative named Marko Elez in fact has admin privileges on these critical systems, which directly control and pay out roughly 95% of payments made by the U.S. government, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and virtually all contract payments. I can independently confirm these details based on conversations going back to the weekend. I can further report that Elez not only has full access to these systems, he has already made extensive changes to the code base for these critical payment system.... Phrases like 'freaking out' are, not surprisingly, used to describe the reaction of the engineers who were responsible for maintaining the code base until a week ago. The changes that have been made all seem to relate to creating new paths to block payments and possibly leave less visibility into what has been blocked. I want to emphasize that the described changes are not being tested in a dev environment (i.e., a not-live environment) but have already been pushed into production." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that it was not stopping or rejecting federal expenditures and that it was committed to safeguarding the nation's payment system following widespread backlash after Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency was granted access to the system. In a letter to members of Congress [from Jonathan Blum, a legislative affairs official at the Treasury Department], the Treasury Department said that it was conducting a review of the system to 'maximize payment integrity' for agencies and the public. It described the initiative as an expansion of a review that had gotten underway during the Biden administration.... The letter was sent as what appeared to be hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Treasury Department building to express their opposition to Mr. Musk's involvement in the federal payments system. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrats on the banking and finance committees, called on the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday to begin an investigation into Mr. Musk's access to the payment system.&"

Faiz Siddiqui, et al., of the Washington Post: "The assistant commissioner of a division of the General Services Administration told staff early this week that layoffs across the federal government are 'likely' after the deferred resignation offer expires Thursday ... -- the sharpest move yet toward forcibly removing many of the 2.3 million civilian federal employees.... The email was the latest sign that administration officials fear few career civil servants will take their offer to quit.... Musk's allies are also now running GSA, which manages real estate and some procurement and information technology across the federal government." (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐Spies on the Loose. Katie Bo Lillis & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "The Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday became the first major national security agency to offer so-called buyouts to its entire workforce, a CIA spokesperson and two other sources familiar with the offer said, part of Donald Trump's broad effort to shrink the federal government and shape it to his agenda. The offer -- which tells federal employees that they can quit their jobs and receive roughly eight months of pay and benefits -- had up until Tuesday not been made available to most national security roles in an apparent cognizance of their critical function to the security of the nation. CIA Director John Ratcliffe personally decided he also wanted the CIA to be involved, one of the sources said.... Still, even as the offer was sent to the entire workforce at the agency, it was not immediately clear whether all would be allowed to take it."

Michael Sainato of the Guardian: "Staffers with Elon Musk's 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency 'They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: "Get out of my way," and they're looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,' said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official.... 'They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.'... Rosenberg noted it had been a longtime goal o corporations that rely on Noaa data to prevent the agency from making the data public, instead of giving it directly to private corporations that create products based on it, such as weather forecasting services."

Josh Campbell, et al., of CNN: "FBI officials have complied with demands to provide the Justice Department with details of thousands of employees who worked on investigations related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot, according to people familiar with the situation.... More than 5,000 employee details were submitted, including employee ID numbers, job titles and their role in the January 6 investigations, sources said, but not their names. There are more than 13,000 agents and 38,000 total FBI employees. Meanwhile, officials dispatched by Elon Musk have been seen at FBI headquarters." MB: Needless to say, it would be childsplay for the little Muskovites to match ID numbers to names. (Also linked yesterday.)

Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the New York Times: "Nearly the entire global work force of the main American aid agency, known as U.S.A.I.D., will be put on leave by the end of Friday, according to an official memo the agency posted online Tuesday night. The notice said only a small subset of 'designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs' would be exempt. Employees designated as direct hires will be put on paid leave, and those posted abroad will be expected to return to the United States within 30 days, the notice said, adding that the agency would 'arrange and pay for return travel.'" Contractors will be laid off if they are not deemed essential. The notice was posted on the agency's website, which had been dark since Saturday." An NPR story is here.

USPS Abides by Trump Tariffs on China. Jacob Bogage & Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service abruptly suspended inbound package shipments from China and Hong Kong on Tuesday as President Donald Trump's trade war began in earnest. The vast majority of goods shipped from China arrive outside the mail system, but Trump's order specifically eliminated a 'de minimis' tariff exemption for small quantities of items and low-value items, including those shipped through a postal service. That exemption covered items worth less than $800. The mail agency's move may block or delay, at least temporarily, parcels from retailers including Shein and Temu and some from Amazon. It could also pose significant delays for items mailed from China to the United States and drive up shipping costs.... Temu and Shein are responsible for an estimated 30 percent of packages shipped daily into the United States...." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. CBS/AFP: "The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday halted an order to suspend incoming shipments from China that threatened to severely disrupt trade between the two major economies. A day after announcing the suspension in the wake of ... [Donald] Trump's tariffs on China, the postal service said in an online update that it would 'continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts.' It added it was working to 'implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery.' Letters and flats were not included in the suspension, the postal service said."

Aah, Nothin' to Worry About, After All. Matt Dixon, et al., of NBC News: "Tech billionaire and newly minted 'special government employee' Elon Musk has received quiet White House reminders in recent days that while he has wide, nearly unprecedented latitude to slash spending and reorient the federal government at a breakneck pace, his power is not unchecked. Trump has suggested publicly, and aides have signaled behind the scenes, that Musk is still a staffer and needs to report to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. 'I'm not sure it was his preferred direction, and it did not seem like he was expecting it,' a Trump aide told NBC News of Musk’s being told he needed to answer to Wiles. 'But it has been reiterated to him in ways that, yes, he reports to the chief of staff.'"

Hannah Knowles, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's administration launched one of its most brazen challenges yet to Congress's authority this week when officials led by billionaire Elon Musk gutted and threatened to abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development and suggested that other agencies should brace for overhauls. But Republican lawmakers have raised few objections about the push to ax USAID, alarming Democrats who say the GOP is ceding power to the White House.... Even as Democrats warned of a 'constitutional crisis,' it was business as usual on Republican-controlled Capitol Hill on Tuesday...."

Tyler McBrien of Lawfare in a New York Times op-ed: "The full picture of the government overhaul has yet to come into focus, and the contours of [Elon] Musk's role and mission in that transformation remain sketchy.... Who exactly is running the federal government?... The possibility [is] that the actual answer is Mr. Musk -- the world's richest man -- and other unaccountable, unelected, unconfirmed allies cozy with the president. Political economists have a name for that: state capture.... Revelations of this especially pernicious, widespread form of corruption have occurred in other countries -- a striking example occurred in the country of Mr. Musk's birth, South Africa -- and they offer cautionary tales for democratic governments everywhere." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Chait reminds us that the founders failed to foresee the development of political parties and how those parties would undermine the checks & balances the founders wrote into the Constitution. But here's something they did not overlook: the president must be "a natural-born citizen ... of the United States." As it turns out, the current president* meets that Constitutional standard, but he has ceded a good deal of control to a foreign-born billionaire. So what we have is a corrupt president*, a corrupt Congress and a corrupt Supreme Court all working in service of a corrupt foreign billionaire who is making wantonly illegal decisions, no doubt some to his advantage. We are officially a gigantic banana republic.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "A power-mad president possessed of radical theories of executive authority and convinced of his own royal prerogative has given de facto control of most of the federal government to one of the richest men on the planet, if not the richest, whose own interests are tangled up in those of rival governments and foreign autocracies as well as the United States.... Even if anyone had elected Elon Musk to anything, the last week would still be one of the most serious examples of executive branch malfeasance in American history.... No one in the executive branch has the legal authority to unilaterally cancel congressional appropriations. No one has the legal authority to turn the Treasury payments system into a means of political retribution. No one has the authority to summarily dismiss civil servants without cause. No one has the authority to take down and scrub government websites of public data, itself paid for by American taxpayers. And no private citizen has the authority to access the sensitive data of American citizens for either information gathering or their own, unknown purposes.... The president's opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was. Whatever comes next, should the country weather this attempted hijacking, will need to be a fundamental rethinking of what this system is and what we want out of it. Anything less will set us up for yet another Trump and yet another Musk."

Shania Shelton & Morgan Rimmer of CNN: "The Senate voted Tuesday night to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general.... The vote was 54-46. The vote was mostly along party lines though Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania joined Republicans in supporting Bondi. Fetterman told reporters after the vote that he decided to support Bondi because of her qualifications, even though she is not his 'ideal' choice. 'I'm saying that she's, she's qualified, and it's not my ideal pick, but it turns out that (former Attorney General) Merrick Garland wasn't anyone's ideal one either,' he said." MB: "Merrick Garland sucks, too," might not be the greatest excuse for confirming another crappy AG.

Early Tuesday, Senate Chickenshits Came Home to Roost. Amanda Seitz & Stephen Groves of the AP: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal vaccine skeptic and activist lawyer, appeared on track to become the nation's health secretary after winning the crucial support of Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor who says Kennedy has assured him he would not topple the nation's childhood vaccination program. In a starkly partisan vote, the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee advanced Kennedy's nomination 14-13, sending his bid to oversee the $1.7 trillion U.S. Health and Human Services agency for a full vote on the Senate floor. A full Senate vote has not yet been scheduled, but with Cassidy's vote no longer in doubt Kennedy's nomination is likely to succeed absent any last-minute vote switches." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Beatrice Peterson of ABC News: "The Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's nomination for director of national intelligence in a closed-door session on Tuesday afternoon. Gabbard advanced in a 9-8 vote along party lines, according to senators leaving the meeting. All Republicans voted in favor of Gabbard while all Democrats opposed her, according to a source familiar with the vote.... Gabbard, a former Democratic Hawaii member of Congress turned Republican, picked up three key Republican votes on Monday from Sens. Susan Collins, James Lankford and Todd Young. They had previously been critical of her past statements on Snowden and her opposition to government surveillance programs." (Also linked yesterday.)

Shaila Dewan of the New York Times: "A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Bureau of Prisons from enacting ... [Donald] Trump's executive order to house transgender women with male inmates and stop medical treatment related to gender transitions. Judge Royce C. Lamberth, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said that three transgender prisoners who brought a suit to stop the order had 'straightforwardly demonstrated that irreparable harm will follow' if their request for a restraining order were to be denied. Judge Lamberth was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan. The lawsuit was one of a barrage of legal actions seeking to stop ... [Mr.] Trump's agenda, including several brought on behalf of transgender prisoners, military service members and young people under 19." MB: Judge Lamberth is an 80-year-old, white conservative and he is married to a woman, so I'm guessing he's straight. Yet he didn't have any trouble seeing that Trump's attacks on transgender people were unlawful.

The Resistance, Ctd. Mattathias Schwartz & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Workers from across the federal government set off a legal counteroffensive against ... [Donald] Trump and Elon Musk on Tuesday, challenging the legality of efforts to raze their agencies, single them out publicly or push them out of their jobs. The raft of lawsuits, filed by F.B.I. agents, public sector unions, representatives of older Americans and liberal-leaning legal groups, hinges on fine points of law that deal with matters ranging from the privacy of taxpayer data to intricacies of federal rule-making. But together, they amount to the opening shots in an emerging legal battle over the constitutional order, checks and balances and the founders' vision of the separation of powers. It will be up to the courts to decide whether the president has the power to not only direct the executive branch, but also to forcefully recast it in his own image. It may also be up to the judicial branch of government to find a way to ensure that its own decisions are enforced." ~~~

~~~ The Resistance, Ctd. Jeremy Roebuck & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Two groups of FBI agents sued the Justice Department on Tuesday in an attempt to block it from maintaining or publicly releasing a list of thousands of bureau employees who worked on investigations tied to ... Donald Trump or the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Attorneys for nine of the plaintiffs, who filed their suit anonymously in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said the compilation of the list was retaliatory and a possible precursor for unlawful firings. Using case assignment information as a basis to terminate FBI employees would violate civil service protections, they said. The lawsuit also raises concerns that Trump administration officials might make public the names of the agents who were assigned to work on the cases, exposing them and their families to retribution from now-pardoned defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack." (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~ The Resistance, Ctd. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Federal workers have filed an emergency lawsuit demanding that courts mandate that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency shuts down the server it has set up at the US Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) headquarters. Wired reports that an attorney representing two unidentified government workers is alleging that 'the server's continued operation not only violates federal law but is potentially exposing vast quantities of government staffers' personal information to hostile foreign adversaries through unencrypted email.' The complaint alleges that the DOGE server was installed 'without OPM -- the government's human resources department -- conducting a mandatory privacy impact assessment required under federal law,' writes Wired." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Resistance, Ctd. Sort Of. Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The chaotic blitz by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has triggered legal objections across Washington, with officials in at least a half-dozen federal agencies and departments raising alarms about whether the billionaire's assault on government is breaking the law.... Internal legal objections have been raised at the Treasury Department, the Education Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the General Services Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the White House budget office, among others. 'So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they're playing a quantity game and assuming the system can't react to all this illegality at once,' said David Super ... [of Georgetown Law School.... At a ... fundamental level, several legal experts and government officials expressed alarm over how Musk's team appears to operate as a strike team, outside typical agency rules and constitutional checks on executive power."

~~~~~~~~~~

Greenland. Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: "Greenland on Tuesday passed a law banning foreign contributions to political parties, an assertion of self-governance amid concern over ... Donald Trump's calls for the United States to acquire the island."

News Lede

New York Times: "Search crews on Tuesday recovered the final remains of 67 people who died in Washington last week after a collision between a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter. The authorities said that all but one of the bodies had been identified."