The Conversation -- February 25, 2025
Marie: Yesterday I was wondering when White House correspondents would hold Trump's feet to the fire. Got the answer already: Never. Ever. Not no way. ~~~
~~~ Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: :The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it would start handpicking which media outlets were allowed to participate in the presidential press pool, the small, rotating group of reporters who relay the president's day-to-day activities to the public. The change breaks decades of precedent. It allows the White House to assert more control over which journalists can witness his activities up-close and ask him questions. The White House Correspondents' Association, a 111-year-old group representing journalists who cover the administration, has long determined on its own which reporters would participate in the daily pool.... Tuesday's announcement was the latest in a string of aggressive efforts by the Trump administration to erode the access and influence of major news organizations that cover the White House." Politico's story is here.
Brian Slodysko & Byron Tau of the AP: "More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from ... Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to 'dismantle critical public services.' 'We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,' the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter.... 'However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.' The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under ... Donald Trump's administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them. The mass resignation of engineers, data scientists, designers and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican president's tech-driven purge of the federal workforce. It comes amid a flurry of court challenges that have sought to stall, stop or unwind their efforts to fire or coerce thousands of government workers out of jobs."
In the Middle of the Night, DOGE Deletes Its Fake Receipts. David Fahrenthold, et al., of the New York Times: "Last week, Elon Musk's government cost-slashing initiative ... posted an online 'wall of receipts,' celebrating how much it had saved by canceling federal contracts. Now the organization ... has deleted all of the five biggest 'savings' on that original list, after The New York Times and other media outlets pointed out they were riddled with errors. The last of the original top five disappeared from the site in the early hours of Tuesday, even as the group claimed in its latest update that its savings to date had increased to $65 billion. The website offered no explanation for why it removed some items or how it arrived at the higher total.... The 'wall of receipts' is the only public ledger the organization has produced to document its work. The scale of that ledger's errors -- and the misunderstandings and poor quality control that seemed to underlie them -- has raised questions about the effort's broader work, which has led to mass firings and cutbacks across the federal government." ~~~
~~~ Ryan Foley of the AP: "Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that ... Donald Trump's administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren't expected to save the government any money, the administration's own data shows. The Department of Government Efficiency ... published an updated list Monday of nearly 2,300 contracts that agencies terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on DOGE's 'Wall of Receipts' shows that more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 794 in all, are expected to yield no savings. That's usually because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, which means the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so."
Rachel Roubein & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "After several thousand probationary workers across the nation's health department were fired in what some dubbed a 'Valentine's Day massacre,' the government has quietly asked some to return to their jobs regulating the nation's food supply, providing help for 9/11 responders and reviewing medical devices.... Patient advocacy groups had decried the firings, saying that they would erode the country's standing as a global health leader, and well-funded lobbying groups rushed to save some government slots that were in part funded by the private sector, not taxpayer dollars. The rehirings are also the latest wrinkle in the chaotic rollout of ... Donald Trump's effort to shrink and weaken the federal government via billionaire Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service."
Zach Montague of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Tuesday directed the Trump administration to unfreeze foreign aid funding within two days after indications that it was failing to comply with a previous court order to keep money flowing to aid groups around the world. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development must release the funds and pay a number of bills by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, Judge Amir H. Ali of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia ruled. Judge Ali had ordered the Trump administration on Feb. 13 to keep disbursing the funds pending the outcome of a lawsuit brought by two health organizations affected by ... [Donald] Trump's executive order to pause most foreign aid for 90 days."
David Nakamura & Teo Armus of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's sweeping ban on refugee admissions, saying the presidential executive order represented an improper nullification of congressional authority. U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead's granting of a preliminary injunction effectively requires the administration to restart the refugee-admissions program that ... Donald Trump shut down last month as part of a series of actions aimed at tightening immigration controls. The judge's order will remain in place while the case is adjudicated." The AP's report is here.
Constant Méheut & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Ukraine has agreed to a deal to turn over the revenue from some of its mineral resources to the United States, a Ukrainian official said on Tuesday, after an intense pressure campaign from ... [Donald] Trump that included insults and threats. The White House did not confirm that an agreement had been struck. The final terms of the deal were unknown, and it was not immediately clear what, if anything, Ukraine would receive in return."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a new trial to Richard Glossip, a death row inmate in Oklahoma whose challenge to his conviction led to an extraordinary concession from the state's attorney general. State lawmakers from both political parties, along with celebrities like Kim Kardashian, had called for clemency or a new trial. Most crucially, Attorney General Gentner Drummond of Oklahoma, a Republican, had asked the justices to throw out Mr. Glossip's 2004 conviction and order a retrial. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the majority, said prosecutors had failed to correct false testimony from their star witness, violating Mr. Glossip's due process rights.... Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the majority opinion in the case...." ~~~
~~~ The decision & dissents are here, via the Court.
The iPhone Really Is a Smartphone. Tripp Mickle & Eli Tan of the New York Times: "While using Apple's automatic dictation feature to send messages on Tuesday, some iPhone users reported seeing ... the word 'racist' temporarily appearing as 'Trump,' before quickly correcting itself. The message blip, which was replicated several times by The New York Times, provoked controversy after appearing in a viral TikTok post, raising questions about Apple's artificial intelligence capabilities. An Apple spokeswoman blamed the issue on phonetic overlap between the two words, and said the company was working on a fix." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Say what? There is absolutely no "phonetic overlap" between the words "racist" and "Trump." (Although I'll admit that when I hear someone say "Musk," I imagine I heard "Nazi.")
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⭐We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Us. Karen DeYoung & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "The United States voted with Russia, North Korea, Iran and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries Monday against a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for the return of Ukrainian territory. The resolution passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly. The U.S. delegation also abstained from voting on its own competing resolution that simply called for an end to the war, after European-sponsored amendments inserting new anti-Russian language in the resolution also passed the 193-member body by a wide margin. The amended U.S. resolution also passed. The votes, taken on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, were an astounding reflection of the deepening split between the Trump administration and its major allies over support for Ukraine and disapproval of ... Donald Trump's unilateral outreach to the Kremlin to settle the war on terms favorable to Russia." An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ This is so wrong: ~~~
~~~ Ukraine to Succumb to U.S. Extortion. Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "Ukraine and the United States are closing in on an agreement that would grant Washington a share of Kyiv's revenues from natural resources..., [Donald] Trump and a Ukrainian government official said Monday, after an intense pressure campaign from the American president to strike a deal. Mr. Trump said that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine may come to the White House this week or next week to sign the agreement. 'The agreement's being worked on now. They're very close to a final deal,' Mr. Trump said on Monday at the White House. Earlier in the day, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, posted on X that 'Ukrainian and U.S. teams are in the final stages of negotiations regarding the minerals agreement.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ As Peter Baker of the NYT points out (linked next), "While many world leaders made the trek to Kyiv to stand with Ukrainian leaders, Mr. Trump focused on sealing a deal to claim the country's natural resources as recompense for military aid."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: Donald "Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France put on a show of friendship on Monday in their first meeting since last month's inauguration, but for all the clubby hugs and handshakes they could not disguise the growing rift between the United States and Europe over the Ukraine war.... 'This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine,' the French president said during a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House. 'It must not mean a cease-fire without guarantees. This peace must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty.... 'This is a responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia.'.... Mr. Trump made no mention of guarantees or Ukrainian sovereignty, refused to call Mr. Putin a dictator and falsely stated that the United States had spent three times as much on the war as Europe had. Mr. Macron, careful not to provoke Mr. Trump, made clear that Russia was to blame for the war, not Ukraine, and corrected the president's assertions about European aid.... At one point, Mr. Trump repeated the false claim that the United States had spent $350 billion to aid Ukraine and 'had nothing to show for it,' while Europe had spent only $100 billion. In fact, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Europe has allocated $138 billion to the war effort, compared with the $119 billion given by the United States." ~~~
~~~ Hafiz Rashid of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: "French President Emmanuel Macron visited the White House on Monday, and during a press conference in the Oval Office, he was forced to correct ... [Donald] Trump on Ukraine. Trump remarked that 'Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back.' Macron immediately set the record straight, touching Trump's arm as he explained the truth. 'No, in fact, to be frank. We paid. We paid 60 percent of the total effort, and it was through, like the U.S., loans, guarantee, grants, and we provided real money, to be clear,' Macron said." (Also linked yesterday.) Peter Baker (linked above) notes that Macron, who had been speaking in French throughout the presser, switched to English to fact-check Trump. And, Baker adds, "Mr. Trump, smiling, made a skeptical face and waved his hand as if to say that he did not buy it."
Okay, so the French have Trump's number. But what about the Brits? What about that "special relationship" between the U.S. and the U.K.? Surely the Brits still admire Trump, especially now that he's made the U.S. a monarchy just like theirs. (Okay, they have a constitutional monarchy where the king mostly just rides around in fancy carriages, and we have an unconstitutional monarchy where the king mostly just rides around in teeny golf carts.) Let's check in with (fictional) British correspondent Jonathan Pie. And thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ~~~
Jonathan Rauch, in the Atlantic, argues that Trump is establishing the most primitive form of government, a form that the sociologist Max Weber called "'patrimonialism' because rulers claimed to be the symbolic father of the people -- the state's personification and protector.... In its governmental guise [today], patrimonialism is distinguished by running the state as if it were the leader's personal property or family business. It can be found in many countries, but its main contemporary exponent -- at least until January 20, 2025 -- has been Vladimir Putin.... Patrimonialism is suspicious of bureaucracies; after all, to exactly whom are they loyal?... People with expertise, experience, and distinguished résumés are likewise suspect because they bring independent standing and authority. So patrimonialism stocks the government with nonentities and hacks, or, when possible, it bypasses bureaucratic procedures altogether.... Patrimonialism suffers from two inherent and in many cases fatal shortcomings. The first is incompetence." The second is corruption. "Corruption is patrimonialism's Achilles' heel because the public understands it and doesn't like it.... [The Democrats'] most effective approach will be hammering home the message that he is corrupt. One thing is certain: He will give them plenty to work with." Thanks to laura h. for this gift link.
The Dolt Who Would Be King. Lisa Needham of Public Notice: "... while the scope of [Trump's] actions is unprecedented, the idea underpinning them is not. It's the unitary executive theory, albeit on a wild amount of steroids, and it's already showing up in various administration court filings defending Trump's illegal power grabs.... Unfortunately for democracy..., enthusiasm for the unitary executive -- at least when the executive is a Republican -- now comes standard for rightwing Supreme Court justices.... In practical terms, if Trump gets the Supreme Court to agree that he has unfettered power to remove members of independent regulatory agencies, their independence is over.... The unitary executive theory also imbues the president with sole and complete power to start or stop criminal prosecutions.... So, there would be no way for the administration to ever be investigated again, at least in any meaningful fashion."
Meg Kelly, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has rescinded a Biden-era regulation that sought to ensure American allies don't use U.S.-made weapons in violation of international humanitarian law.... The White House's repeal of the directive, which President Joe Biden imposed as his administration struggled to reconcile its support for Israel's war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and its alarm about the civilian toll of that fight, comes as the Trump administration puts its 'America First' mark on U.S. foreign policy.... Biden's memo built on existing laws related to arms transfers, requiring countries acquiring U.S.-made weapons to provide written assurance they would not employ those arms in violation of international humanitarian law and would facilitate the delivery of U.S.-provided humanitarian aid, under the threat of suspension of arms supplies. While its proponents said the memo served as a means to pressure Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, a major point of contention between U.S. and Israeli officials since the war broke out after Hamas's attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, critics said the Biden administration failed to use its own rules to effectively improve conditions for civilians in Gaza." (Also linked yesterday.)
So this was the top story on the NBC News Website at 5:15 pm ET Monday: ~~~
~~~ Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "Responses to the Elon Musk-directed email to government employees about what work they'd accomplished over the past week are expected to be fed into an artificial intelligence system to determine whether those jobs are necessary or not, according to three sources with knowledge of the system. The information will go into an LLM (Large Language Model), an advanced AI system that looks at huge amounts of text data to understand, generate, and process human language, the sources said. The AI system will determine whether someone's work is mission-critical or not." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Lindsay Whitehurst & Chris Megerian of the AP: "... Donald Trump voiced support for Elon Musk's demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments by the end of Monday or risk getting fired, an edict that has spawned new litigation and added to turmoil within the government workforce. 'What he's doing is saying, "Are you actually working?"' Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. 'And then, if you don't answer, like, you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired, because a lot of people aren't answering because they don't even exist.' The Republican president said that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has found 'hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud' as he suggested that federal paychecks are going to nonexistent employees. He did not present evidence for his claims. Attorneys representing unions, businesses, veterans and conservation organizations filed an updated lawsuit in federal court in California on Monday, arguing Musk had violated the law with his demand.... The lawsuit, spearheaded by the State Democracy Defenders Fund, called the threat of mass firings 'one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.'"(Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'd like to know who's collecting the paychecks of all these people who don't exist. What bull! ~~~
~~~ A related story, by Whitehurst & Megerian, on the employees' lawsuit is here.
~~~ Allan Smith of NBC News: "The Department of Health and Human Services sent agency employees an email Monday afternoon warning them that any responses to Elon Musk's request that they share their accomplishments from the past week might 'be read by malign foreign actors.'... [An] email [to staff] said employees who wish to respond should keep 'a high level of generality and describe your work in a manner to protect sensitive data.... Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.'..." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, the DOGE & the Little DOGEys would either inadvertently (because they're so effing incompetent) or purposely (because they're treacherous wankers) share federal employees' work with "malign foreign actors." ~~~
~~~ Smith also reports on the lamest, most twisted CYA attempt ever written: "Musk defended the email request Monday evening in a post on X. 'The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!,' Musk wrote. 'Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?'"
~~~ Why was Elon whining? Because while all this was going on, it turns out this had happened:
~~~ Emily Davies, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has told federal agency leaders that they can ignore the public decree from Elon Musk to effectively fire employees who do not send in bullet-point summaries of their work last week..., a break with the billionaire who has exerted significant power to slash the 2.3-million-person federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management ... delivered the news to agency chief human capital officers on a call midday Monday.... [A] person briefed on the call said ... that OPM was unsure what to do with the emails of employees who responded so far and had 'no plans' to analyze them. Later in the day, though, Trump suggested nonresponders could still be terminated, while Musk wrote on X they would be given 'another chance' to write back before being fired. In a written memo, OPM wrote that employees should respond but added, 'Agency heads may exclude personnel from this expectation at their discretion and should inform OPM of the categories of the employees excluded and reasons for exclusion.'
"The patchwork of conflicting, evolving guidance and ensuing confusion has become a mainstay of the Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service's campaign to shrink the federal government -- an effort that has inspired considerable backlash from the courts, lawmakers and people inside the bureaucracy. Also Monday, a federal watchdog agency said the Trump administration's firings of a handful of probationary federal workers were illegal and requested a 45-day stay of their terminations." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear & Kate Conger of the New York Times sum it all up: "Elon Musk's monthlong rampage through the federal bureaucracy appears to have met its first real test, as some of ... [Donald] Trump's top loyalists flatly reject the billionaire's demand that their employees justify their jobs or be summarily fired. By Monday, just 48 hours after an email from Mr. Musk with the subject line 'What did you do last week?' landed in the email boxes of millions of federal workers, personnel officials proclaimed the 'request' to be voluntary even as Mr. Musk renewed his demand.... At virtually the same time that employees were told a response was no longer necessary, Mr. Trump weighed in..., praising Mr. Musk's demand as 'genius' and saying that employees who did not respond would be 'semi-fired' or 'fired.'" ~~~
~~~ Wait, wait! There's More: "Late Monday evening, Mr. Musk offered another twist on his social media site. 'Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,' Mr. Musk wrote, apparently referring to federal employees who did not respond to his email by his original deadline of Monday at midnight. 'Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.'... Also on Monday, the Office of Personnel Management sent out a new memo reiterating the request and the deadline, though allowing agency heads to 'exclude personnel from this expectation at their discretion.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: They're not even good at the one thing you thought they were good at: destruction. Perhaps I'm being too flip, though. As one federal employee said over the weekend, "They're terrorizing us." Indeed, they are still good at that. ~~~
At least we can be satisfied in knowing they don't get no respect: ~~~
~~~ Emily Forlini of PC Magazine: "Department of Housing and Urban Development employees returning to the office today were greeted by a looping clip of Trump sucking Musk's toes behind the words 'long live the real king.' Those reporting to work at the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Washington, D.C. headquarters this morning got an eyeful as someone appeared to have hacked screens at the building to display an AI-generated video of President Trump.... The stunt coincides with all HUD employees being ordered to return to the office today. The video played on a loop for about five minutes on screens throughout the building, according to independent journalist Marisa Kabas. Staffers 'couldn't figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs,' Kabas says." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I wonder if the person who (1) created the toe-sucking screen & (2) fed it into the HUD system will write these down as two of his five accomplishments for the week.
Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The acting commissioner of the IRS will announce he is stepping down as early as Tuesday, according to four people ... who said the departure is driven in part over his distress about the chaos inflicted on the government by ... Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service. Doug O'Donnell, a civil servant who spent several decades at the agency, will depart the administration by the end of the week, said the people, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. He is expected to be replaced on a temporary basis by Melanie Krause, who has also served in senior positions at the tax agency, the people said. President Trump has nominated Billy Long, a former Republican congressman from Missouri, to run the agency.... O'Donnell's expected departure comes at a pivotal time for the IRS, which faces a crush from tax filing season and fresh scrutiny from Musk's team."
Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "A government watchdog lawyer whose dismissal by ... [Donald] Trump has been stalled by the courts announced on Monday that his office would seek to pause the mass firings of some probationary federal workers. The lawyer, Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that protects whistle-blowers, said his office had determined that the firings might violate the law. In a statement posted to the agency's website, Mr. Dellinger said that the decision to fire probationary employees en masse 'without individualized cause' appeared 'contrary to a reasonable reading of the law,' and that he would ask a government review board to pause the firings for 45 days.... Mr. Dellinger's move, which was reported earlier by Government Executive..., also highlights the many layers of government officials who have been targeted by the Trump administration. At every level of the case, the officials reviewing the firings have themselves been dismissed and are using other legal means to fight to hold on to their jobs." The Huffington Post's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: "Hampton Dellinger" is the perfect name for an accidental hero.
Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: Emil Bove, Trump's former defense attorney, and now the No. 2 at Main Justice, has a fraught relationship with attorneys at the Southern District of New York, "where he rose to prominence as a top terrorism prosecutor and departed in December 2021 after a case he oversaw crumbled over procedural violations by members of his team.... Interviews with more than two dozen former colleagues, current department officials and others, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, reveal new details about Mr. Bove's nine years at the Southern District, a turbulent period that defined his career and foreshadowed his current effort to bend the Justice Department to the Trump agenda."
Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "Current and former FBI officials expressed shock and dismay Monday over the news that ... Donald Trump had selected a right-wing podcaster and ardent FBI critic to be the bureau's deputy director.... On his podcast, former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino -- who once called the FBI 'irredeemably corrupt' -- thanked the president for the appointment and suggested that he was prepared to step out of his role as a MAGA warrior. But even as he did so, he repeated the baseless charge that the Justice Department had been 'weaponized,' a claim he has frequently brandished to criticize the agency he will now help lead.... Some current FBI employees ... said they feared Bongino's appointment spelled the end of an independent FBI and put the bureau's fearsome investigative and intelligence capabilities in the hands of political actors with radical agendas." ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett of the New York Times profiles the insane conspiracy theorist Dan Bongino, who the insane conpspiracy theorist president* has named the No. 2 person at the Department of Justice. Barrett does not mention that Bongino was a frequent guest on Insane Conspiracy Theory Central a/k/a Alex Jones' Infowars, as Wired has revealed in a firewalled article. ~~~
~~~ Barrett is no Michelle Goldberg, and she definitely goes there in her New York Times column assessing Dan Bongino: "Angelo Carusone, president of the watchdog group Media Matters for America, told me that even among the right-wing broadcasters with whom Trump has staffed his nascent administration, Bongino stands out as a conduit between the fever swamps and the president. Now Bongino is in a place to turn wild notions from the right-wing internet into pretexts for federal investigations. Before Trump's inauguration, for example, Bongino said the F.B.I. was 'hiding a massive fake assassination plot to shut down the questioning of the 2020 election.'... Trump could have found a smoother and more sophisticated ideologue to help him transform the F.B.I. into a tool of his will, perhaps someone from the Claremont Institute ready to put an erudite spin on authoritarianism. He wanted the jacked-up hothead....
"On his show last month, Bongino gloated over the angst Trump's nominees were causing career civil servants, cheering on the president's 'total personnel warfare.' Then he took out two plastic toy robots, an orange one to represent Trump and a blue one he called 'liberal screaming Karen.' He used the Trump robot to beat the lady one, smashing it over and over. 'Yes!' he exclaimed. 'This is how we fix this place.'"
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Washington said on Monday that the way the Trump administration set up and has been running Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency may violate the Constitution. The skepticism expressed by the judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly..., suggested that there could be problems looming for Mr. Musk's organization.... She expressed particular concern that it violated the appointments clause of the Constitution.... The judge also indicated that she had serious concerns about how the organization is being run. Her concerns emerged from unresolved questions about who is in charge of the U.S. DOGE Service and what role Mr. Musk plays in its operations. At the hearing, Judge Kollar-Kotelly repeatedly asked a lawyer for the government, Bradley Humphreys, to identify the service's administrator. He was unable to answer her.... When the judge pressed him on what Mr. Musk's job actually was, Mr. Humphreys said, 'I don't have any information beyond he's a close adviser to the president.' That exchange seemed to irk Judge Kollar-Kotelly, who signaled her skepticism about the organization's structure and powers." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So essentially a government lawyer -- that is, the guy representing the Trump/Musk tag team -- is confirming that he has no idea what authority Musk has to order agencies around and/or what authority the Muskettes have to barge into federal buildings and demand access to computer systems containing top-sensitive information. Of course all this fits well into Jonathan Rauch's theory that what we have now is a "patrimonial" form of government where Trump (or Musk??) is the Father of Our Country, and as such his authority is self-generating. Whether or not the arrangement between King Donald and the Prince Regent violates the Constitution is irrelevant.
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday blocked Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service from using private information collected by the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management. U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Teachers to stop DOGEfrom accessing databases containing personal information on millions of Americans. She denied the union's request to block DOGE from sensitive Treasury Department data because a preliminary injunction in a separate case achieved that goal. The order bars the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management, which manages personnel for the federal government, from disclosing personally identifiable information to DOGE affiliates at least until March 10."(Also linked yesterday.)
Gary Grumbach & Doha Madani of NBC News: "A federal judge on Monday declined to issue a temporary restraining order for The Associated Press in its effort to gain full access to the Trump administration, asking for a fuller briefing before making a decision.... The AP was barred indefinitely from accessing the Oval Office and Air Force One, as it had in the past, because of its refusal to change its style for the Gulf of Mexico to the 'Gulf of America.' Judge Trevor McFadden told the court there were several reasons he denied the temporary restraining order request. He noted there was a difference in the issues of this case and case law presented by both parties." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: In an on-air CNN report, Paula Reed noted that McFadden is a Trump appointee, and that he has scheduled a hearing for further arguments.
Understandably, it may have slipped your mind, but it turns out we do have a vestigial federal government, and the vestige that has offices in the Capitol is doing things to pretend it (a) has a function and (b) is functional: ~~~
~~~ Jacob Bogage, et al., of the Washington Post: "Republicans' push to enact ... Donald Trump's tax, immigration, national defense and energy agenda is at risk of faltering, lawmakers say, as House Speaker Mike Johnson attempts to coax his slim majority into an agreement that still may be far away. Johnson (R-Louisiana) is set to put a budget resolution up for a floor vote Tuesday, but is facing a potential revolt from swing-district Republicans wary of cuts to social safety net benefits and fiscal hawks who say the bill's $2 trillion in spending cuts don't reach far enough into federal coffers. The legislation would start the reconciliation process, a legislative mechanism that would allow the GOP to head off a Democratic Senate filibuster, but the competing demands have boxed in the speaker -- and could put the brakes on Trump's legislative plans." ~~~
~~~ Meryl Kornfield, et al., of the Washington Post: Johnson is praying for God's help in his endeavor.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: 'Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) last week issued a challenge to fellow Republicans who might be concerned about what ... Donald Trump and his administration are doing -- but haven't been willing to say so. Basically, she said it can't just be me.... Republicans in general haven't exactly heeded her clarion call. But she is getting some sudden backup from a handful of prominent moderate Republicans using rather strong language. They've used words such as 'embarrassing,' 'cruel,' 'absurd,' 'extortion' and 'trauma' while crying foul over what Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the federal government, as well as Trump's attacks on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky."
Hilary Lewis of the Hollywood Reporter: During her speech accepting the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, actor and activist Jane Fonda "segued into how the empathy that actors use in their craft should inform their response to the current political climate. 'A whole lot of people are going to be hurt by what is happening, by what is coming our way,' Fonda said without mentioning specific policies, issues or people she was referring to as being responsible for this 'serious' threat. 'We need to listen with our hearts and not judge. We are going to need a big tent to resist successfully what is coming at us.' And she took a moment to note, amid the Trump administration's frequent opposition to 'woke' initiatives, that 'empathy is not weak or woke, and, by the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people.' That remark earned Fonda some of her loudest applause and cheers." Thanks to RAS for the link.
Once again, this country may turn to Black Americans to pull us out of this morass. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~
Anne D'Innocenzio of the AP: "Fabric and crafts retailer Joann Inc., which has been a destination for generations of quilters, knitters and lovers of crafts projects for more than 80 years, is going out of business and shuttering all its stores. The announcement comes after the Hudson, Ohio-based retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, the second time in a year. It cited sluggish consumer demand and inventory shortages. At the time it vowed it would keep all of its stores open." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Canada. Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: "More than 230,000 Canadians have signed a petition asking the country's prime minister to revoke Elon Musk's citizenship and passport, accusing the tech billionaire and Trump ally of joining a 'foreign government that is attempting to erase Canadian sovereignty' and engaging in 'activities that go against the national interest of Canada.'... [Musk] has continued to support .. Donald Trump as he calls for Canada to become the 51st state and pushes for high tariffs on the United States' northern neighbor. Responding to the petition, Musk wrote on social media, 'Canada is not a real country.'... The petition ... needed 500 signatures to gain certification for presentation in the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament. Experts say that while it is unlikely the petition will be successful, given tight laws on revoking Canadian citizenship, it reflects the mood in a country where people are boycotting American products, canceling trips across the border and politicizing sporting events in response to Trump's threats." Musk holds Canadian as well as U.S. citizenship. ~~~
~~~ Marie: If Canada is not a real country in the same way, say, the Conch Republic (a/k/a Key West) is not a real country, then "Canadian citizenship&" might be fun, but it's just a joke, so Musk should be more than happy to lose his citizenship in a fake country.
News Ledes
Some Good News, for a change: ~~~
~~~ New York Times: "Astronomers have been carefully watching 2024 YR4, a space rock with a heightened chance of hitting Earth in 2032. But fear not: NASA announced on Monday that it posed a threat no longer -- the odds that the asteroid would smash into our planet have dropped to nearly zero."
New York Times: "Eleven days after the pope was hospitalized, speculation is mounting and prayers for his recovery verge on a vigil."
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Reader Comments (17)
Commented something like this on the Goldberg piece last night:
What we're seeing is a generational shift in Republican leadership.
This group of yahoos was raised on the propaganda that burst forth when Reagan cancelled the Fairness Doctrine. Initially, few Republican leaders took seriously the messages delivered by the explosion of right wing radio and propaganda tv. It was just a tool. Representatives of Big Money as they were, they were in it for the money only and understood their propaganda machine's manipulation by lies and outrage for the nonsense it was.
But the years passed and the current generation of sickos we're electing and appointing to positions of power took in the propaganda with their mother's milk. They were raised on it and came to need it in their daily diet.
Crazy as the nonsense is, they believe it. Religiously.
World Leaders Visit Kyiv
John Oliver on content modernization.
If this administration followed through on their threat to fire people who couldn't explain five worthwhile things they did recently then all of Fat Hitler's cabinet picks and all the people he has installed would be looking for work. Even their AI program would be able to recognize that someone who was never in his office and was always golfing or tweeting two hundred times a day was not a valuable employee.
I do hope that someone mocks up the termination letters for FH and Ketamine Muck based on failing so spectacularly to meet the most minimal of standards of the jobs they fake to do.
The Privileged
"One experiment by psychologists at the University of California, Irvine, invited pairs of strangers to play a rigged Monopoly game where a coin flip designated one player rich and one poor. The rich players received twice as much money as their opponent to begin with; as they played the game, they got to roll two dice instead of one and move around the board twice as fast as their opponent; when they passed “Go,” they collected $200 to their opponent’s $100.
In various ways — through body language and boasting about their wealth, by smacking their pieces loudly against the playing board and making light of their opponents’ misfortune — the rich players began to act as though they deserved the good fortune that was largely a result of their lucky roll of the dice.
At the end of the game, when researchers asked the rich players why they had won the game, not one person attributed it to luck."
Life's a game
@RAS: Unless the researchers picked mostly Orange County Republicans as subjects for that study, the results are really disturbing.
Here's how I think I would play the game if I were the "rich" subject. (1) Not knowing the purpose of the study, I'd still try to win the game in as fair & square a way as possible, given my advantages. (2) But I think I would recognize and admit that I had won because I was given unfair advantages. (3) I don't think I'd lord it over my "poor" opponent or credit myself with superior skill.
I'd like to see this study replicated at other universities around the country. If the results are the same, we are one screwed-up nation of delusional narcissists.
I read somewhere that Melonie is back at Mar-a-Lardo after being
in Manhattan for a month.
How could she stand to be away from that charming, handsome,
attentive hunk of a man?
(I'm talking about the pool boy, not what's-his-name).
As the Pretender and Putin get together to divide up Ukraine without including Ukraine of their allies in the discussion, I wonder what they will do if Ukraine disagrees with their "settlement."
Maybe a combined U.S. and Russian "peacekeeping" mission to enforce it?
Dan Pfeiffer
"How to Make the GOP Pay a Price for DOGE
Trump made a huge mistake by putting Musk in charge of implementing deeply unpopular policy"
Jonathan Chait, in The Atlantic, explains how DOGE cutbacks are nothing like the Clinton administration’s Reinventing Government initiative.
"
'What @DOGE is doing is similar to Clinton/Gore Dem policies of the 1990s,' [musk] wrote on X last week. 'The current Dem party has just gone so crazy far left that it isn’t recognizable anymore!'
Clinton and Gore put their policy ideas through normal channels of legal process and public scrutiny—when they offered buyouts to the federal workforce, it was done through an act of Congress, not an email—whereas Musk, by canceling spending appropriated by Congress, has repeatedly violated the plain text of federal law and the Constitution, if you care about that sort of thing. Musk clearly does not—and an aversion to wild illegality and rank amateurism is a better explanation for Democrats’ opposition than them no longer caring about government efficiency."
Musk says Democrats Ought to Love DOGE
The wages of not actually being a genius, but being an historically ignorant ass, an ass ignorant of both history, finance, and the necessity of having reliable allies and trading partners.
This topic requires quite a bit more than I can give it today (fighting off some kind of bug, the bug is winning) so I’ll offer an executive summary.
Fat Hitler and his Nazi prime minister are recreating the exact conditions that considerably deepened the Great Depression: high tariffs, isolationist policies, market chaos, and a sense of panic around the globe. But they’ve decided to add their own extra sauce to this moronic stew: the wholesale embrace of fascism and unqualified support for totalitarian states.
It has been a rock solid staple of international relations (for thousands of years!) that robust trade provides the best conditions for peace. Isolationism, a closing of borders, and constant blaming of “the other” ensure the expansion of xenophobia and paranoia, both of which act as accelerants for conflict and war.
Trump and Musk and their lackeys screech “America First!”, but what that really mean is Trump and Musk and the billionaire broligarchy first.
And when problems do arise, international tensions leading to armed conflict, we have a drunk TV host and bug-eyed MAGAts running the DoD, a lunatic dog killer running homeland security, thousands of knowledgeable, skilled, qualified federal employees summarily fired by high school bullies, and on the domestic side (and you just know that foreign terrorist groups and domestic anti-government militia psychos looking to make their mark must be thrilled right down to their blood soaked boots) we have two nut job, foul mouthed conspiracy junkies running an organization, the FBI, they know nothing about, and have made sure that agents experienced in tracking domestic and foreign threats have all been booted.
Does anyone truly believe that Kash Patel and the jack booted thug second in command will be Johnny on the Spot when it comes to investigating anything (other than Trump enemies)? These two idiots couldn’t beat fifth graders in a game of “Where’s Waldo?”.
And to top it off, unlike after 9/11 when we could count on the backing and assistance of dozens of allied nations, most of those are now deciding to go their own way, feeling unable to trust an America that now sides with the primary sources of evil in the world and looks to Putin and other dictators as sources of vital information.
And they’ve done all of this in just a few weeks.
In four years, what’ll we have? Smoking ruins? A dead economy? Rampant unemployment? A dysfunctional government? Not to mention thousands of children dead from diseases we had conquered decades ago?
But Fat Hitler and Adolf Musk will be sitting in their walled up compounds, counting their money.
What will the both-siders and the MAGA appeasers say then?
The Media is owned by and controlled by racists!
Wonkette
"What Do Joy Reid, Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin, José Díaz-Balart and Alex Wagner Have In Common?
None of them is white, and MSNBC is canceling or sidelining them all."
Rachel Maddow last night,
“Dozens of producers and staffers, including some who are among the most experienced and most talented and most specialist producers in the building, are facing being laid off, they're being invited to reapply for new jobs. That has never happened at this scale in this way before when it comes to programming changes, presumably because it's not the right way to treat people, and it's inefficient and it's unnecessary, and it kind of drops the bottom out of whether or not people feel like this is a good place to work, and so we don't generally do things that way.”
No wonder the average viewer of the three main so call news networks is 69, and no wonder they can't attract younger viewers. If you constantly muzzle reporters and promote mediocrity and sychophants you are left with a worthless product that appeals only to people who don't bother to think for themselves. Treat people like idiots and the only people left will be idiots to stupid to realize they are being talked down to. There are quality reporters out there, but more and more they are forced to go out on their own. The independence is nice, but that means they lack many of the resources and manpower that a true news organization could devote to finding out the truth. The captured media is a very scary prospect in a time when we desperately need a functioning news media to expose and amplify the criminality and inhumanity being done in the name of the American people.
mister mix
"yv_edit, a TikTok and YouTube creator who talks about feminism and men. She made the point that men, not women, are naturally submissive. They place themselves in a hierarchy, and they’re submissive to the men above them in the hierarchy, and shit on the ones below them. The ones below them submit to those above, and shit on those below, and on and on and on.
This is Trump, in my opinion, but we haven’t seen much of his submissive nature because he’s usually at the top of the male hierarchy wherever he exists, especially with the useless numbskull men that usually surround him. Most of them are supplicants.
But Elon is different. Trump defers to him, because Elon is much, much richer than Trump (even using the imaginary finances Trump uses to gauge his wealth)."
Shawn McCreesh in the New York Times
Gold Card Immigration
BARF!
"President Trump on Tuesday previewed his plans for a new visa program he was calling the gold card, describing it as 'somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication.'
The blingy new program would allow 'very high-level people' a new 'route to citizenship,' Mr. Trump said. The price tag, he said, would be about $5 million."
sell also
Ms Liberty in tears
I saw something about this “Express line to citizenship for the wealthy” but I thought it was a joke. Silly me. Everything this fat prick does is a joke, just not funny jokes.
This is the old Gilded Age mindset that the rich are automatically better, smarter, more sophisticated. Irrefutable evidence to the contrary is the asshole who is pushing this perfectly corrupt plan. An ignorant, boorish bully.
Fatty and is South African Thug who have tossed experienced and highly qualified civil servants out with the trash in favor of connected, loyal, fascist MAGAts are single-handedly reviving one of the hallmarks listed in Mark Twain’s study of “The Gilded Age”.
“Unless you can get the ear of a Senator, or a Congressman, or a Chief of a Bureau or Department, and persuade him to use his ‘influence’ in your behalf, you cannot get an employment of the most trivial nature in Washington.”
And the new Gilded Anuses are ready in case any object to their criminal takeover. Here’s Twain again:
“When the rich rob the poor, it’s called business. When the poor fight back, it’s called violence.”
And now Fat Hitler has entire branches of the federal government geared up to grease the wheels for the wealthy and investigate and jail any who complain.
So, sure. Let’s invite foreign oligarchs who got rich this way onto the Express Lane for Wealthy Crooks. Make checks payable to Donald J. Trump.
So.....
A lot of wealthy immigrants on the path to citizenship coming to work in the fields?
I thought the story about the (I'm breathless with awe--) Gold Card was surely a story from the Onion OR a new National Lampoon publication with cartoons and other graphics illustrating this wonder about to come our way...
All I can say is we have reached the realm of Fantasy Island: come live in the USA, where everyone is of equal...well, net worth...
Massive failure of the national education juggernaut. Is there no one left who questions this sort of Trump Org list of insane projects to buy online and which monies are directly into the coffers of Trump Org. Maybe the Musk Ox is correct and the Department of Education should be deleted and the taxes funding it transferred to each state, due to the public education failure we have been on for so many many years and the "top" people in the country can't read or write...There is a lot of evidence every single day that billionaires and the "administration" are among those that suffer from total ignorance.
But fear not, the congress just passed a bill that will give those rich people more money than god, and they will be killing off their own voters, among others... NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU is being screamed. How do you like that, trumpies and trumpettes?