The Conversation -- February 26, 2025

Sabrina Rodriguez & Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social account late Tuesday an apparently AI-generated video that takes viewers on a dreamlike journey through an alternate-reality version of the Gaza Strip, remade according to his proposal for the United States to 'own' the territory.... 'No more tunnels, no more fear. Trump Gaza is finally here,' a voice sings to an electronic dance beat. 'Trump Gaza, shining bright. Golden future, a brand-new life.'... It features AI-generated shots of a massive gold statue of Trump towering over a traffic circle, a toddler holding a large gold balloon of Trump's head and bazaar-like gift shops lined with Trump figurines. In several scenes, dollar bills fall from the sky, including over a suit-clad Musk dancing on the beach.... On Wednesday morning, critics of the president took to social media to slam his posting of the video, with many describing it as callous and disturbing.... Even on his own platform, Truth Social, some viewers found the video strange or distasteful." Thanks to RAS for the heads-up. MB: I thought about posting the video here. But, no, it's too offensive. ~~~

     ~~~ Akhilleus has some thoughts about the video in today's Comments.

President* Musk Holds His First Cabinet Meeting. Alex Gangitano of the Hill: Elon "Musk ... was dominant at the opening of the Cabinet meeting, offering a number of sharp comments toward the federal workforce while standing and taking questions from the press.... Musk ... defended his email demanding all federal workers report their accomplishments to his office, calling it a 'pulse check' and saying anyone with a heartbeat and neurons could complete it.... 'There are fictional individuals collecting paychecks,' Musk said of the government, though he did not offer specific evidence that people are fraudulently getting paychecks.... 'Is anyone unhappy with Elon? If you are, we'll throw them out of here,' Trump asked the room [of actual Cabinet secretaries] at one point...."

No More Birds, No More Bees. No More Bushes, No More Trees. Marie: I thought Akhilleus was kidding when he claimed in today's Comments "that a biodiversity conference in Hawaii was canceled because Fat Hitler's Agriculture Secretary thinks biodiversity is DEI." But no. He found that Secretary Brooke Rollins has proudly posted a press release announcing the Department has cancelled a "frivolous Biden-era contract" for $11K for a conference room rental for a USDA biodiversity meeting in Hawaii. It's quite impressive that in only a month, the Trump administration has figured out how to end life on earth. In addition, Karl Schneider of the Indy Star reports that "The USDA revoked a federal tree-planting grant to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful in a move the nonprofit's CEO said may be the result of anti-DEI initiatives coming from the Trump Administration.... The use of the words 'biodiversity' and 'equity' may have been the reason the grant was revoked, [Jeremy] Kranowitz [-- president of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful --] hypothesized." They. Are. Nitwits.

DOJ Nominees Testify Trump Can Ignore Court Orders. Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... [Donald] Trump in line to take top jobs at the Justice Department sparred with Democrats on Wednesday over whether the administration could simply ignore some court orders -- an early skirmish in a larger fight over the White House's efforts to claim more sweeping presidential powers. The debate, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, unfolded as three nominees testified during a confirmation hearing to join the upper ranks of the Justice Department. Two of the nominees, Harmeet K. Dhillon and D. John Sauer, have long worked as personal lawyers for Mr. Trump. The third, Aaron Reitz, selected to lead the Office of Legal Policy, was questioned about an old social media post in which he suggested that Mr. Trump follow the example set by President Andrew Jackson, who ignored a Supreme Court order in 1832. 'There is no hard and fast rule about whether, in every instance a public official is bound by a court decision,' he said Wednesday.... Democrats have raised concerns that the Trump administration might ignore not just lower court decisions, but also appellate decisions or Supreme Court rulings.... Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said some Supreme Court decisions were wrong and should have been fought more vigorously by government officials." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sauer was the attorney who argued before the Supreme Court that the president* should be immune from prosecution for ordering a Navy SEAL team to assassinate his political opponent.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday over an employment discrimination suit filed by a straight woman who twice lost positions to gay workers. The case comes two years after the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions programs in higher education and amid the Trump administration's fierce efforts to root out programs that promote diversity. While some conservative groups have hoped the case will yield a major statement on efforts to diversify the workplace, it seemed likely to produce a modest decision saying merely that a key civil rights law applied equally to all employees.... The court seemed likely to issue a brief and perhaps unanimous decision in favor of the woman, Marlean A. Ames."

Bezos argues for personal liberties. But his news organization now will forbid views other than his own in its opinion section.... There is no doubt in my mind that he is doing this out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests. -- Marty Baron, former WashPo executive editor, in a statement

This is what Oligarch ownership of the media looks like.... The second-richest guy in the world, Bezos, owns The Washington Post. He has now declared that the editorial page of that paper is going Trump right-wing. Surprise, Mr. Musk agrees. We must support independent media. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), on X ~~~

~~~ This Is Not Mrs. Graham's Washington Post. Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: "Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, announced a major shift to the newspaper's opinion section on Wednesday, saying it would now advocate 'personal liberties and free markets' and not publish opposing viewpoints on those topics. Mr. Bezos said the section's editor, David Shipley, was leaving the paper in response to the change. 'I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,' Mr. Bezos said. 'Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America's success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical -- it minimizes coercion -- and practical; it drives creativity, invention and prosperity.' In his note, Mr. Bezos said that he had asked Mr. Shipley whether he wanted to stay at The Post, and that Mr. Shipley had declined. 'I suggested to him that if the answer wasn't "hell yes," then it had to be "no,"' Mr. Bezos wrote." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Washington Post Staff: "Bezos said that The Post no longer needs to offer a 'broad-based opinion section' because of a diversity of opinions available online.... Post publisher and CEO William Lewis told staffers in an email Wednesday that the change was not about 'siding with any political party.'" MB: Looks as if Jennifer Rubin, a Post columnist who left the paper a couple of weeks ago, saw the Bezos scrawl on the wall. ~~~

     ~~~ Robert Reich: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk & Mark Zuckerberg "were in the first row at Trump's inauguration. They, and other billionaires, have now exposed themselves for what they are. They are the oligarchy. They continue to siphon off the wealth of the nation. They are supporting a tyrant who is promising them tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks that will make them even richer, and destroying democracy so they won't have to worry about 'parasites' (as Musk calls people who depend on government assistance) demanding anything more from them.... When [billionaires] talk of 'personal liberties and free markets' they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into worse economic insecurity and fear."

Unvaccinated Child Dies from Measles. RFKJ Says "Meh." Devi Shastri & Amanda Seitz of the AP: "A child who wasn't vaccinated died in a measles outbreak in rural West Texas, state officials said Wednesday, the first U.S. death from the highly contagious respiratory disease since 2015. The school-aged child had been hospitalized and died Tuesday night amid the widespread outbreak, Texas' largest in nearly 30 years. Since it began last month, a rash of 124 cases has erupted across nine counties.... Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation's top health official and a vaccine critic, said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is 'watching' cases, though he did not provide specifics on how the federal agency is assisting. He dismissed Texas' outbreak as 'not unusual' during a Wednesday meeting of ... Donald Trump's Cabinet members." MB: A "rash" of cases? Really?

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Catie Edmondson, et al., of the New York Times: "The House on Tuesday narrowly passed a Republican budget resolution that calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and a $2 trillion reduction in federal spending over a decade, clearing the way for major elements of ... [Donald] Trump's domestic agenda. The nearly party-line vote of 217 to 215 teed up a bitter fight within the G.O.P. over which federal programs to slash to partially finance a huge tax cut that would provide its biggest benefits to rich Americans. It came after a head-spinning hour in which Republican leaders tried to put down a revolt among conservatives who wanted deeper spending cuts, failed to do so, canceled the budget vote and then reversed course minutes later and summoned lawmakers to call the roll. The chaotic scene underscored the unwieldy path House Republicans have ahead of them as they try to push through Mr. Trump's domestic policy agenda through Congress over the objections of Democrats. Approval of the budget plan was a crucial first step for Republicans to smooth the way through Congress for an enormous fiscal package using a process called reconciliation, which allows such bills to steer clear of a filibuster and pass the Senate on a simple-majority vote." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's one humorous note: One "of the holdouts, Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana..., said she received a 'personal commitment' from Mr. Trump to 'save health care and make it better.'" That's right; Spartz changed her vote on a promise from Trump that he would make healthcare programs better. That's the same promise he's failed to even come close to fulfilling on for the decade he was trying to tank Obamacare. Did he tell her he had a concept of a plan?

~~~ Margot Sanger-Katz & Alicia Parlapiano of the New York Times: "What can House Republicans cut instead of Medicaid? Not much." To pass the bill through reconciiiation, which avoids a Senate filibuster, they must find $880 billion in cuts over the next ten years, and these cuts must come from programs the House Energy and Commerce Committee oversees. "If the budget resolution is going to become public policy, it will require legislation that cuts health programs. Almost a trillion dollars is a lot of money, even in federal budget terms, and health care is where the money is." ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, Dear. Jared Gans of the Hill: A "poll from Hart Research conducted for the nonprofit Families Over Billionaires, which advocates in opposition to tax cuts for the wealthy, found 71 percent of voters who backed Trump said cutting Medicaid would be unacceptable. Voters overall were even more opposed to it, with 82 percent saying so. Six in 10 Trump voters also said cutting food and nutrition programs would be unacceptable." MB: This is not because Trump voters have suddenly become bleeding hearts dedicated to helping poor people. Rather, it's because many of them are poor people who need assistance programs like Medicaid & food stamps (SNAP).

Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will replace a controversial visa program for foreign investors with a new initiative to sell $5 million 'gold cards' to wealthy individuals looking for a path to U.S. citizenship. 'They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful,' Trump said in the Oval Office. 'And they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people.'... The president shared few details on requirements, aside from the $5 million payment, but said those who buy the gold cards will be given green-card privileges and 'a route to citizenship.'... He said Tuesday that the gold cards will help bring in 'very high-level people' and claimed that companies such as Apple could buy the cards Immigration experts expressed skepticism that the Trump administration could enact the change without Congress, though the president insisted he could do so unilaterally because he was 'not doing citizenship.'... Muzaffar Chishti ... [of] the Migration Policy Institute, said that only Congress can end the EB-5 visa program for investors that Trump and [Commerce Secretary Howard] Lutnick want to replace." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some of you expressed shock yesterday at this Oligarchs Invitational, but it's new only in that Trump & Lutnick ballooned the price of admission. Congress created the EB-5 visa program in 1990, and the current minimum investment to qualify is $800K. As to these "very high-level people" paying a lot of taxes, the whole idea of the budget proposal the House passed last night was to lower taxes for "very high-level people." So that's bull. Plus, it's pathetic that Trump thinks "rich" and "very high-level" are the same thing.

Palling Around with Despots. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In a move that redrew the international order, Mr. Trump this week had the United States vote against a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the third anniversary of the war. Among the countries that Mr. Trump joined in siding with Russia? North Korea, Belarus and Sudan. [And, as RAS pointed out, Iran.] Those he stood against? Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and most of the rest of the world. It would be hard to think of a starker demonstration of how radically Mr. Trump is recalibrating America's place in the world.... He is positioning the United States in the camp of the globe's chief rogue states in opposition to the countries that have been America's best friends.... If the United States is going to align itself with international outcasts..., it could force Europe, Canada and Asian allies like Japan and South Korea to go their own way and look elsewhere for alliances. At the same time, Mr. Trump's deference to Moscow has allowed Russia out of the diplomatic isolation chamber that Washington and the West sought to construct in the three years since its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine."

Petty, Vindictive Little Swine. Perry Stein & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is targeting the elite Washington law firm that is representing former special counsel Jack Smith, issuing a directive that would strip some of its lawyers of their security clearances and examine the firm's government contracts. The order signed Tuesday afternoon called for suspending the security clearance of any attorney at Covington & Burling who the Trump administration concludes was involved in representing Smith while he was special counsel. It also directs federal agencies to limit their interactions with Covington & Burling and assess government contracts with the firm to align 'funding decisions with the interests of the citizens of the United States.' The firm has been providing pro bono personal legal services to Smith.... Legal experts said the action is unlikely to have widespread implications for Covington & Burling, because the firm's revenue does not come from government contracts and relatively few attorneys have cases that regularly require security clearances.

"As he signed the directive, Trump suggested that he should send the pen to Smith, before tossing it to one of the reporters in the audience. When asked if he was targeting the law firm, Trump replied: 'I was targeted. ... Don't talk to me about targeting.'" Politico's report is here.

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Over the last several days, more than a dozen federal agencies, primarily led by Trump-appointed Cabinet secretaries, told employees that they did not need to comply with a Musk directive to email a list of what they had done in the past week. The rebuke was the most striking display yet of internal dissatisfaction with DOGE's moves across the federal government.... But Musk has fought back, publicly condemning those who resisted and calling for federal employees to face a second order to explain their work accomplishments. His DOGE team, meanwhile, escalated its multipronged assault on the bureaucracy, preparing for a new round of even more sweeping layoffs and moving to cancel additional grants and other forms of federal spending.... Musk's surrogates, for instance, have in recent days directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to cut more than 800 existing federal contracts.... DOGE helped implement at least a partial freeze on government credit cards, ceasing the work of employees who need to bill expenses."

Ask Amy. Name of Mystery Woman Revealed. Here's some news. After attorneys for the White House were unable to answer federal judges' simple questions about who headed up DOGE, the White House finally found somebody willing to pretend she's in charge of DOGE: "The White House confirmed Tuesday that Amy Gleason, who used to work for the firm founded by DOGE adviser Brad Smith, will be the U.S. DOGE Service administrator. (Musk himself is officially a 'special government employee' who's advising the White House and DOGE's effort, the administration has said.)" ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Here's a full WashPo story on Gleason's new job: "Gleason's appointment is unlikely to change any perception that Musk is in charge of DOGE, but it answers a key question as to its organizational structure." The AP's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Luckily, it won't matter who's in charge, because DOGE is planning to have AI fire federal workers. It will be this fabulously efficient automated system where nobody is responsible for those pink slips. Think of the boon this is to supervisors who have a smidgen of empathy left and feel bad about destroying the lives of people who have dedicated themselves to public service. It's a great concept! Genius! as Trump would say: ~~~

     ~~~ David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Employees connected to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are reportedly updating government software that would automate the firing of federal workers.... Wired revealed that DOGE had obtained access to a Department of Defense software program called AutoRIF -- which is shorthand for Automated Reduction in Force. The software was designed to create lists of employees eligible to be fired.... 'With new software and the use of AI, some government employees fear that large-scale terminations could roll out even more quickly,' Wired reported." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The system could automatically send the pink slips in cardboard boxes that the fired employees then could use to load up the decades' worth of tchotchkes & family photos they had cluttered their space with. Perhaps there would still have to be some human contact in order to collect the employees' badges and key cards or whatever, though maybe these could be sent to HR through a pneumatic tube or something. Oh, be sure to deduct the cost of the cardboard boxes from their final paychecks.

Well, maybe not fraud, but I'll give ya waste and abuse ~~~

     ~~~ Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said on Tuesday that more than 100 intelligence officers from 15 agencies had been fired for having sexually explicit discussions on a government chat tool. The chat program was administered by the National Security Agency and intended for discussions of sensitive security matters. But a group of employees used it for discussions that contained sexual themes, intelligence officials said this week. The chats also include explicit discussion of gender transition surgeryofficials said. Transcripts of the chat were first disclosed Monday by Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who writes for City Journal."

Emily Davies & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas A. Collins took to social media on Tuesday to tout sweeping cuts to contracts that he said would save the department nearly $2 billion without touching core services. But the 875 contracts on the chopping block help cover medical services, fund cancer programs, recruit doctors and provide burial services to veterans, according to internal VA documents.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said in a statement Tuesday...[,] 'This is just another reckless cost-cutting decision that will harm veterans and tax payers for years to come.'" MB: Traditionally, most politicians did not boast about stiffing ailing or dying veterans, but this is MAGA and I suppose those veterans are suckers and losers.

In the Dark of 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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ 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 fund for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so." (Also linked yesterday.)

Desmond Butler, et al., of the Washington Post: "Over the years, [Elon] Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often at critical moments, a Washington Post analysis has found, helping seed the growth that has made him the world's richest person.... The total amount is probably larger: This analysis includes only publicly available contracts, omitting classified defense and intelligence work for the federal government. SpaceX has been developing spy satellites for ... the Pentagon's spy satellite division.... The Wall Street Journal reported that contract was worth $1.8 billion.... The Post found nearly a dozen other local grants, reimbursements and tax credits where the specific amount of money is not public. An additional 52 ongoing contracts with seven government agencies ... are on track to potentially pay Musk's companies an additional $11.8 billion over the next few years.... DOGE ... has sought to cut staff, slash budgets or cut contracts at all seven of the agencies where Musk's companies have ongoing contracts."

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." (Also linked yesterday.)

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 ha 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." (Also linked yesterday.)

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." (Also linked yesterday.)

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 apreliminary 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. (Also linked yesterday.)

Silvia Foster-Frau & Vanessa Herrero of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration flew nearly 180 migrants from the United States to Guantánamo and deported all of them to Venezuela on Thursday. The Post spoke with three men who were detained in the U.S. military prison that has been used to house suspected terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. All had crossed the border illegally, and although Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem called the migrants transported to Cuba the 'worst of the worst,' The Post could find no other criminal record for those interviewed. [Diuvar] Uzcátegui, José Daniel Simancas and Franyer Montes said they were denied calls to lawyers or loved ones after repeated pleas. They said they were subjected to humiliating and invasive strip searches. They described prolonged periods in isolation, with only two one-hour opportunities to go outside over two weeks.... The migrants' conditions in Guantánamo 'were horrific, and are far more restrictive, more severe and more abusive than what we would see in a typical immigration detention facility in the United States,' said Eunice Cho ... [of] the ACLU National Prison Project."

Fifth Amendment? Never Heard of It. Ariana Figueroa of the Daily Montanan, republished by the Raw Story: "Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem late Tuesday announced a campaign to compel people in the United States without legal authority to register with the U.S. government and then self-deport.... Noem said in a press release that if a person without legal status fails to register online, that person will be subject to a fine, imprisonment or both.... Registering would require submitting fingerprint information and other personal information. Adults and children 14 and older would be required to register."

⭐They're Really Trying to Kill Us. Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has privately urged the White House to strike down a scientific finding underpinning much of the federal government's push to combat climate change.... The 2009 'endangerment finding' cleared the way for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act by concluding that the planet-warming gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. Both the Obama and Biden administrations used that determination to set strict limits on emissions from cars and power plants. By repealing the endangerment finding, the Trump administration would be taking one of its most consequential steps yet to derail federal climate efforts. In recent days, the administration has also blocked work that is central to international climate research and barred federal scientists and diplomats from attending a major climate event in China." ~~~

~~~ All the Best People. Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Formaldehyde, the chemical of choice for undertakers and embalmers..., can also cause cancer and severe respiratory problems. So, in 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency began a new effort to regulate it. The chemicals industry fought back with an intensity that astonished even seasoned agency officials. Its campaign was led by Lynn Dekleva, then a lobbyist at the American Chemistry Council, an industry group that spends millions of dollars on government lobbying. Dr. Dekleva is now at the E.P.A. in a crucial job: She runs an office that has the authority to approve new chemicals for use. Earlier she spent 32 years at Dupont, the chemical maker, before joining the E.P.A. in the first Trump administration. Her most recent employer, the chemicals lobbying group, has made reversing the Environmental Protection Agency's course on formaldehyde a priority and is pushing to abolish a program under which the agency assess[es] the risks of chemicals to human health." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So this is one of many Trumpity policies designed to kill people, but the upside is that those who die because of Dekleva's regulatory rollback will be pre-embalmed.

Naftali Bendavid & Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: "Rowdy crowds are showing up at lawmakers&r' town hall meetings to protest ... Donald Trump's actions. Some people are launching into chants like 'No king!' or shouting down Republican House members. Sen. Bernie Sanders is drawing overflow crowds of his own as he seeks to mobilize voters against Trump's budget cuts. At the same time, a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general is methodically filing lawsuits against Trump's orders, and in six out of seven cases, it has been successful in persuading judges to halt them. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Governors Association and liberal groups are seeing a surge in fundraising. And Democratic members of Congress are seizing on a budget clash as an opportunity to coalesce against the president's plans. Little by little, after an initial phase of stunned confusion, the broader resistance to Trump is beginning to wake up." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: My own Congressional delegation (100% Democratic) is a waste of space. I called them all last week, and when I complained my rep was doing nothing to fight Trump, she sent me a fucking fundraising letter asked me to send her money to fight Trump. What? She can't afford a bus ticket to anti-Trump rally? I wrote her a scathing response and dared her staff to put it in front of her face. She'll be hearing from me again. ~~~

~~~ What to do?? What to do? How about putting your hands over your ears and saying "La La La La" very loudly. Or here's what GOP leadership is suggesting: ~~~

     ~~~ Melanie Zanona, et al., of NBC News: "House Republicans are becoming weary and wary of in-person town hall meetings after a number of lawmakers have faced hometown crowds angry about the Trump administration's push to slash government programs and staffing. Party leaders suggest that if lawmakers feel the need to hold such events, they do tele-town halls or at least vet attendees to avoid scenes that become viral clips, according to GOP sources. A GOP aide said House Republican leaders are urging lawmakers to stop engaging in them altogether."

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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ 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.")

Marie: Two days ago, I was wondering when White House correspondents would hold Trump's feet to the fire. Yesterday I got the answer: 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. (Also linked yesterday.)

Justin Baragona of the Independent: "Hours after MSNBC boss Rebecca Kutler officially announced that Joy Reid's show was ending and the longtime host was leaving the network amid a programming overhaul, Reid devoted her final broadcast to instructing her viewers on the ways to resist throughout Donald Trump's presidency, warning them that fascism is 'already here.' The progressive firebrand was also joined by some of her fellow MSNBC hosts, who paid tribute to their departing colleague and likened her cancellation as 'losing a limb,' while Reid lauded network star Rachel Maddow as their 'fearless leader.' Reid's sudden cancellation has sparked backlash among liberals, with some claiming that 'racism' or an attempt to curry favor with Trump factored into the network's decision. Meanwhile, Reid has said she is 'not sorry' for her unapologetically progressive commentary on her show, 'whether it was the Black Lives Matter issues' or going 'hard for immigrants who've done nothing but come to this country like my parents did and try to make a life and defended them.' MAGA pundits and Trump, meanwhile, have relished in the outspoken host's departure."

Rachel Maddow rips the suits at MSNBC for cancelling Joy Reid's & Alex Wagner's shows. (Maddow doesn't name names, but it's apparently that the new president of MSNBC, Rebecca Kutler, is responsible for axing Reid & Wagner.): ~~~

~~~ Anna Betts of the Guardian: "MSNBC has told the majority of the employees who produce Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid's prime-time evening news shows they are being let go as part of the network's programming overhaul with the option to apply for new roles, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.... The Maddow team was let go because of a quirk of how they worked on both Maddow's show and Alex Wagner's show.... On Monday night, Maddow appeared to criticize MSNBC for the recent programming shake-ups and the treatment of its staff during a monologue on her show.... The anchor also called Reid's firing a 'bad mistake' during the monologue, and stated that she did not want to lose Reid as a colleague at MSNBC." MB: "Appeared to criticize"? Nah, she raked management over the coals. And back again. ~~~

~~~ Marcie Jones of Wonkette: "Way back last November, MSNBC (and also CNBC) became no longer affiliated with NBC in any way. The channels' overlord, Comcast, spun them off into a new company called SpinCo, headed by a guy named Mark Lazarus, who said he wanted to make the channel more appealing to Republicans while keeping its appeal to progressives.... Seems pretty obvious that Joe Buildthewall is not going to start watching MSNBC no matter what, even if the hosts were replaced with topless fire-jugglers. Also probably-not-coincidentally, the week of November 18 when the SpinCo spinoff was announced happened to be the very same week Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough crawled down to Mar-a-Lago to try to find "common ground" with the guy they used to freely call fascist, unmoored, mentally unstable, liar, and an insurrectionist, and who had tweet-called them 'low I.Q. Crazy Mika' with a 'bleeding facelift,' and 'Psycho Joe,' respectively. If you were wondering what the backstory was with their 180. The appropriately-named Lazarus would also like to attract younger viewers, because the average viewer of MSNBC is 70.... And now MSNBC is replacing the only two primetime weekday shows on the network solely hosted by women of color.... [Also,] Jonathan Capehart, Katie Phang, and Ayman Mohyeldin are all losing their weekend shows...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Since they're trying to dump us aged viewers, I guess it doesn't matter what an 80-year-old thinks of their star-studded evening lineup, but the only MSNBC shows I ever watch on purpose are Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow & Ayman Mohyeldin. I occasionally watch Lawrence O'Donnell's first segment, because he covers important stuff, IMO, but I am annoyed with his constant airs designed to remind me that he's better than I am.

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...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The decision & dissents are here, via the Court. (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Canada. Ian Austen of the New York Times: Since Donald Trump revealed his plans to cripple Canada with tariffs and has called for the U.S. to annex Canada, Canadians have found a new penchant for flying the nation's maple-leaf flag."

Ukraine, et al. Trump Extorts the Victims. 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." (Also linked yesterday.)

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.")

~~~~~~~~~~

⭐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.)

~~~~~~~~~~

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."

The Conversation -- February 24, 2025

So this is the top story at NBC News at 5:15 pm ET: ~~~

~~~ 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." ~~~

     ~~~ BUT. Marie: Earlier, at the top of the 5:00 o'clock hour, CNN reported on-air that the Office of Personnel Management had sent out a "never mind" memo to all heads of federal human resources departments. This latest memo said that the list that the mandatory list was, after all, voluntary! ~~~

     ~~~ Update. 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."

     ~~~ 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.'..." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, the DOGE & the Little DOGEys would either purposely or inadvertently share federal employees' work with "malign foreign actors." Smith also reports on the lamest CYA attempt ever written: "Musk defended the email request Monday evening in a post on X. 'Th 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?'"

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." ~~~

     ~~~ 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.

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." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Why our own reporters refuse to do what the French leader did Monday is beyond me. As far as I can see, White House reporters almost always let Trump get away with flagrant lies. Occasionally a reporter will ask Trump a question of substance, one that challenges a stupid Trump stunts. But then the reporter always lets Trump weasel out of answering the question, usually by responding with some ridiculous CYA lie. The reporter never calls out the lie that gives Trump a fake excuse for the stupid stunt of the moment. Letting Trump get away with a fake excuse renders the entire exchange useless.

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.'"

⭐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 [link fixed] 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.

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..., critics said the Biden administration failed to use its own rules to effectively improve conditions for civilians in Gaza."

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.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd like to know who's collecting the paychecks of all these people who don't exist. What bull!

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 DOGE from 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."

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."

The refusal to accept King Donald but to instead promote the Prince Regent continues unabated. Admittedly, the Little Prince is doing most of the king stuff: ~~~

~~~ 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.~~~

     ~~~ 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.

~~~~~~~~~~

Some people are not taking the reign of King Donald seriously. One of those unserious people would be RAS, who thought it important to share these obviously mocked-up Time covers. Look, Donald is king and he does not have a regent. He is a manly man, and he has many an heir of his own. If there be a prince, it be Donald II, not Elon. If we're to have a proper monarchy, it must be hereditary. And, as with the Spanish Hapsburgs, we should expect to see strong signs of inbreeding. Many have already speculated about the heritage of Donald II, what with his evident shortcomings.

~~~ Okay, he's more terrible and more delusional than the last king we had (who was fairly terrible and definitely delusional) ~~~

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "In his first month in office..., Donald Trump has upended the nation's nearly century-old approach to global affairs. The speed and energy with which the president has moved to remake Washington's role in the world has been most visible in his approach to the war between Russia and Ukraine. He has embraced Russia's strength and blasted the smaller country, falsely accusing President Volodymyr Zelensky of starting a conflict that began with a Russian invasion. He has insulted U.S. allies in Europe, who for decades have relied on the United States to check Russian power. The result, diplomats and analysts say, has been to cede influence to Moscow. But that might just be the beginning. At worst, Trump's strategy could embolden other global powers, notably China, to adopt more bellicose policies toward their neighbors, they say -- the opposite of what some of his allies say needs to be the focus of U.S. foreign policy." ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Sonne of the New York Times writes a similar assessment, emphasizing the "new possibilities" Trump has afforded Putin. See also remarks, linked below, by Friedrich Merz, who is about to become Germany's new chancellor, as well as Western leaders' support for Ukraine, also linked below.

Plus, Our King Is Preternaturally Corrupt. Natalie Allison, et al., of the Washington Post: "In back-to-back events last week..., Donald Trump held court with Saudi government officials and investors who do business with his family's firms. On Wednesday, he made a special trip to Miami to appear at a beachfront conference hosted by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which has invested $2 billion in a business run by the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and is the main backer of LIV Golf, the upstart golf league that has held five tournaments at Trump's courses since it launched in 2022, with a sixth scheduled for April at Trump National Doral in Miami. Trump has not disclosed his profits from the events. Kushner, Trump's 'first buddy' Elon Musk, and other family business associates of Trump and his Middle East envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, also attended. Less than 24 hours later, Trump hosted Yasir Al-Rumayyan -- who runs the Saudi fund and oversees LIV Golf -- for a meeting at the White House. On the agenda: a potential reunification of the golf world. The meetings demonstrated how Trump has blended the roles of president and business mogul. But 'it's hard to see how any of those meetings have anything to do with our interests as American taxpayers,' said Don Fox, former general counsel for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Great. You've got your greedy king. You've got your upper-crusty sport. You've got your foreign billions. You've got your nepo baby. You've got your oligarchs. So to hell with us peasants.

Adam Goldman & Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: "Dan Bongino, a former New York City police officer and Secret Service agent turned right-wing pundit and podcaster, will be the next deputy director of the F.B.I...., [Donald] Trump said on Sunday night. Mr. Trump, making the announcement on his social media site, said the newly installed F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, had named Mr. Bongino to the No. 2 post at the country's most powerful law enforcement agency. The role of deputy director does not require Senate confirmation, meaning two steadfast Trump loyalists will effectively be installed at the uppermost reaches of an agency known for its tradition of independence.... In the past, F.B.I. directors have selected senior agents with extensive experience to essentially run the bureau's operations, a complex and grueling job that requires working closely with foreign partners and navigating sensitive investigations.

"The choice of Mr. Bongino is a radical and abrupt departure from that practice and raises startling questions about how two people who have never served as F.B.I. agents will oversee the vast surveillance and investigative powers of an agency of 38,000 people and a budget of about $11 billion. The combination of Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino will represent the least experienced leadership pair in the history of a bureau typically insulated from White House interference. It will also ensure that the bureau will be run by men who have freely peddled misinformation and embraced partisan politics." The AP's report is here.

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "Trump administration appointees in charge of the U.S. Agency for International Development sent employees an email on Sunday afternoon saying that they were firing 2,000 workers and putting up to thousands of foreign service officers and other direct hires around the world on paid leave starting that night. The only exceptions to the leave would be people working on 'mission-critical programs,' as well as 'core leadership' and employees supporting 'specially designated programs,' according to a copy of the email obtained by The New York Times. The email said appointees running U.S.A.I.D. were firing 2,000 employees based in the United States using a mechanism called 'reduction in force.' The mass firings are part of a series of layoffs of agency employees by the Trump administration during a broad effort to halt almost all U.S. foreign aid using a blanket freeze. The moves came after a judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration could proceed with plans to lay off or put on paid leave many agency employees and close down operations overseas, which means forcing employees based abroad to come back to the United States. Some of those employees say they expect to be fired once they return home." Politico's report is here.

Irie Sentner of Politico: "Elon Musk's weekend threat to federal workers triggered panic and confusion Sunday as administration officials rushed to issue sometimes conflicting guidance, setting in motion a power struggle between Musk and agency heads appointed by ... Donald Trump to lead the federal government. The guidance varied by agency, with some leaders telling their employees to wait before complying with Musk's demand that they justify their jobs in writing and others either staying silent or offering vague advice on how to handle the Musk missive. It's the latest episode of Musk's 'move fast and break things' philosophy clashing with the layers of rules and laws that fortify the bureaucracy he hopes to hobble. And it's the first sign that even staunch Trump loyalists are beginning to flex their political muscle against Musk, an unelected 'special government employee,' whose power stems primarily from his proximity to the president." Federal employment law experts have pointed out that Musk's or-else demand is illegal for several reasons. A related AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) slammed Elon Musk over an 'absurd weekend email' sent to federal employees requiring they send the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) a list of what they accomplished in the past week. 'Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform,' Murkowski wrote on the social platform X. 'The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn't it.'... 'If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he's trying to cut,' Murkowski said." ~~~

~~~ "He's Just a Dick." Paige Skinner of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) called out Elon Musk for his new requirement that all federal employees defend their jobs or else get fired. 'This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn't even the boss, he's just a dick,' Smith wrote Saturday in a post on X, which included a screenshot of Musk's original post explaining the new requirement." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Oh gosh, I just figured out that this is all Rachel Maddow's fault. Follow me here: ~~~

     ~~~ Will Neal of the Daily Beast (Feb. 22), republished by Yahoo! News: "Maddow called ... Donald Trump's leadership 'decorative' on the Friday night broadcast of The Rachel Maddow Show, suggesting that 'First Buddy' and DOGE director Elon Musk is truly holding the power and the public's attention.... She alleged that Trump has been made to look 'weak' and 'sort of beside the point' as Musk continues to 'regularly upstage' and even 'talk over him' in interviews and conferences held at the White House.... Trump appeared to address her comments on Saturday morning as he launched a series of rage posts targeting the network. 'MSNBC, COMMONLY KNOWN AS MSDNC, IS A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY,' wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform. 'SUCH LYING AND MISREPRESENTATION. BAD PEOPLE AT THE TOP!' As if in further defiance of Maddow's comments, Trump also called for Musk to 'GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Now, if you take a look at the top of yesterday's Reality Chex page, you'll see that shortly after Trump urged Musk to "be more aggressive," Musk ordered federal employees to list their accomplishments or else: So now we learn that the sequence of events is

(1) He [Trump] appears to be sort of decorative at this point.... The person who's really working double-time to make the government actually do things appears to be his top campaign donor, who is getting all the attention, and all the credit. -- Rachel Maddow, Friday night MSNBC show

(2) Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him be more aggressive. -- Donald Trump, rage-post on his failing social media site, as a riposte to Maddow's biting assertions

(3) All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week... Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. -- Elon Musk, post of his failing social media site

(4) What Did You Do Last Week? -- Office of Personnel Management, email to civil servants, subject line

Patrick Wingrove, et al., of Reuters (Feb. 22), republished by Yahoo! News: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asking some of its recently fired scientists if they will come back to their jobs, including some employees reviewing Elon Musk's brain implant company, Neuralink, multiple sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The FDA plans to rehire around 300 people in total, according to four sources with secondhand knowledge of the situation, following ... Donald Trump's rush last week to fire employees at the agency responsible for reviewing drugs, food safety, medical devices and tobacco.... It is not known who ordered the firings and now the rehirings, according to sources familiar with the situation, including several employees caught up in the turmoil. At least 11 employees working at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health -- which oversees medical device reviews -- have received calls since Friday saying they could return to work on Monday...."

“No Exit.” Federico Rios of the New York Times: “On floor after floor of Panama City’s soaring Decapolis Hotel, people huddled around the windows of rooms they could not leave. They were among roughly 300 migrants from all around the world, deported by the United States to Panama. There, they were barred from leaving the hotel or meeting lawyers.... In furtive messages, sent through handmade signs, hidden phones and gestures behind glass, some of the migrants expressed a sense of constant, overwhelming fear.... We learned that the 10 Iranian migrants had converted to Christianity, which according to Iran's Shariah law, is a crime punishable by death. They had illegally entered the United States in the last month, and were detained in San Diego before being deported to Panama.... Migrants who did not agree to be deported would be taken to a detention camp on the outskirts of the jungle known as the Darién Gap, Panama's security minister said. He described the decision to hold the migrants as part of an accord with the United States." A related Washington Post story, published Feb. 21, is here.

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The military transported about 15 immigration detainees from Texas to the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Sunday, bringing in new migrants who have been designated for deportation days after it cleared the base of its first group of deportees."

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Sharp cuts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development are likely to upend housing markets, make homes less affordable and roil mortgage transactions, according to current and former employees, contractors and housing experts. The changes come amid a national housing crisis, with not enough homes and ever-rising costs. Current and former staffers ... said it was increasingly difficult to answer how and whether HUD can carry out its core functions as the federal government's top housing agency. Those concerns have grown, they said, since officials from the U.S. DOGE Service, billionaire Elon Musk's effort to slash federal spending and regulations, appeared at the department's headquarters. HUD's entire workforce is projected to drop by about half -- from about 8,300 employees to just over 4,000 -- with deep cuts in field offices nationwide, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post.... Staffers also emphasized that these cuts appear to contrast with ... Donald Trump's campaign promises to make housing more affordable." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course Trump doesn't care about making housing more affordable for most people, but to the extent that he wants to do something splashy to lower housing costs, he would want to do that splashy thing for middle-class white people, not the more needy people HUD assists. So there's no "contrast with Trump's campaign promises."

In case you know somebody who still is of the impression that Musk's indiscriminate cuts to the federal workforce are about reducing waste, fraud and abuse, there's this: ~~~

~~~ Frederick Gibbs and six other former IRS Commissioners under Republican and Democratic administrations, in a New York Times op-ed: "Last week, the Trump administration started laying off about 6,700 I.R.S. employees, many if not most of whom are directly involved in collecting unpaid taxes.... Aggressive reductions in the I.R.S.'s resources will only render our government less effective and less efficient in collecting the taxes Congress has imposed. It will shift the burden of funding the government from people who shirk their taxes to the honest people who pay them, and it will impede efforts by the I.R.S. to modernize customer service and simplify the tax filing process for everyone."

Joan Greve of the Guardian: "Attendees of a center-right political conference in Washington DC were forced to evacuate on Sunday, after someone claiming to be Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was convicted and then pardoned for his role in the January 6 insurrection, allegedly emailed in a bomb threat against the event. Tarrio denied any involvement in the incident. Organizers of the Principles First summit, which is considered a center-right alternative to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), confirmed the bomb threat after they abruptly asked attendees to clear the room hosting the conference.... Jim Acosta, the former CNN host, posted a copy of the threatening message on social media. The message claimed that four pipe bombs had been deployed against political enemies of 'Emperor Trump' who 'all deserve to die', including attendees at the conference, Michael Fanone, a former US Capitol police officer, Fanone's mother and John Bolton, Donald Trump's former national security adviser." ~~~

~~~ Joan Greve of the Guardian: "Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was convicted and then pardoned for his role in the January 6 insurrection, confronted a group of police officers who defended the Capitol during the attack, accusing one of them of being a 'coward'. A video shared by Tarrio on social media on Saturday showed him following the officers, Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn, Daniel Hodges and Aquilino Gonell, through the lobby of a Washington hotel that was hosting the Principles First summit, a conference where one of the officers received a 'profile in courage' award. In the video, an unidentified woman with the officers tells Tarrio: 'You guys are traitors, just back off.' 'You were brave on Twitter,' Tarrio said to one of the officers as he continued to follow them. 'You guys were brave at my sentencing when you sat there and laughed when I got 22 fucking years. Now you don't want to look in my eyes, you fucking cowards.'"

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Idaho. Kate Thornbrugh of the Coeur d'Alene Press: "A legislative town hall organized by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee devolved into chaos Saturday when unidentified, plainclothes security personnel dragged a Post Falls woman from the Coeur d'Alene High School auditorium for heckling legislators.... Footage from the event showed [Kootenai County Sheriff Bob] Norris take [attendee Teresa] Borrenpohl's arm with both hands and make multiple attempts to pull her from her seat. Borrenpohl said that after she declined to leave, Norris turned to the unidentified men and said, 'Guys, get her.' On video, Borrenpohl can be seen repeatedly asking the men to identify themselves. They did not. She asked Norris if the men were his deputies, and he gave no answer.... [Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee] White said it's not appropriate for law enforcement to forcefully remove a person from a town hall for speaking out of turn or shouting.... Coeur d'Alene city code requires security agents to wear uniforms 'clearly marked' with the word 'security.'... The security personnel at Saturday's town hall were in plainclothes, with no visible sign they were security." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If Republicans don't stop holding townhall meetings, we're going to keep reading stories like this. ~~~

~~~ Fer Instance. Pennsylvania. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch believes that Tesla owner Elon Musk's attempts to slash and burn the federal government have awakened voters who are now engaging in what he describes as an 'American uprising.' In his latest column, Bunch focuses on the protests that are targeting the showrooms at Tesla car dealerships to protest against Musk's illegal efforts to shut dow entire government departments without any congressional input or authorization.... Added to this are the town halls in which Republican lawmakers are facing increasingly hostile constituents, as well as 'large protests over the last week by laid-off federal workers, by LGBTQ activists in New York City furious over the scrubbing of transgender references from the Stonewall National Monument, and here in Philadelphia and elsewhere for last Monday's Not My President Day.'"

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Germany. Christopher Schuetze & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Germany is getting a new chancellor. Its current leader is heading out of power, but his party probably will stick around in a diminished capacity. And the Trump administration's efforts to influence the vote don't seem to have done much.... By early Monday morning, the results [of Sunday's elections] seemed clear enough to indicate that the center-right Christian Democrats would be able to lead Germany with only one coalition partner, returning the country to the more durable two-party form of government that has led it for most of this century. Here are five takeaways from the returns." ~~~

~~~ Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Germans voted for a change of leadership on Sunday, handing the most votes in a parliamentary election to centrist conservatives, with the far right in second, and rebuking the nation's left-leaning government for its handling of the economy and immigration. The results almost certainly mean the country's next chancellor will be Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democrats. Returns posted early Monday morning indicated that he had a path to governing Germany with only one coalition partner, the relatively stable scenario that his party had hoped for." ~~~

~~~ Deutsche Welle's main story is here. DW has a bunch of election graphics here. ~~~

⭐~~~ Tschüss. Tim Ross & Nette Nöstlinger of Politico: ";The Trump administration does not care about Europe and is aligning with Russia, said [Friedrich] Merz, who is on course to become Germany's new leader. The continent, he warned, must urgently strengthen its defenses and potentially even find a replacement for NATO -- within months. Merz's comments mark a historic watershed: They reveal how deeply Trump has shaken the political foundations of Europe, which has depended on American security guarantees since 1945.... 'My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,' Germany's chancellor-in-waiting said. "... after Donald Trump's statements last week at the latest, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.'... Merz, a staunch Atlanticist[,] has spent much of his professional career as a lawyer working with and for American firms...."

Ukraine, et al. Justin Spike of the AP: "More than a dozen Western leaders attended events in Ukraine on Monday marking the third anniversary of the country's war with Russia, many pledging more military aid in a conspicuous show of support for Kyiv as uncertainty deepened over the commitment of ... Donald Trump's administration to helping it fend off Russia's invasion.... Some of Ukraine's most important backers, including European leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, were among the stream of dignitaries arriving by train in Kyiv. Others spoke at a conference via video link.... World security is at stake in talks over how the war ends, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned." ~~~

~~~ David Latona of Reuters, via AOL: "Spain will provide Ukraine with a new military aid package worth 1 billion euros ($1.05 billion) this year, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday in Kyiv during an international meeting held on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion. The package comes as part of a 10-year bilateral security and defence agreement signed in May 2024, according to a statement by Sanchez's office. Last year, Madrid already sent over 1 billion euros in aid for Ukraine's defence." ~~~

~~~ Constant Méheut & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on Sunday against demands from the Trump administration for billions in Ukrainian natural resources and for holding peace talks that exclude Ukraine, while announcing plans for a major summit of European leaders on Monday. The Ukrainian leader's efforts to shore up European support while pressing ahead on negotiations with the United States came despite ominous messages from ... [Donald] Trump in recent days belittling Mr. Zelensky and issuing threats if Ukraine does not soon agree to a minerals deal. Mr. Zelensky suggested that in assailing Ukraine, Mr. Trump had chosen the wrong adversary.... 'If peace for Ukraine requires me to step down, I'm ready,' Mr. Zelensky said on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. 'Another scenario: I could trade my position for NATO membership, if that's what it takes,' he added.... [Mr. Zelensky] said that more than 30 countries would participate in meetings on Monday, either in person in Kyiv or virtually, as a kind of coalition of support for Ukraine's war effort.... On Saturday evening, Mr. Trump ramped up pressure on Ukraine to sign the minerals deal, which has now been under negotiation for more than 10 days." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was glad to hear a few Democrats on the teevee Sunday expressing horror at Trump's attempts to extort an ally.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who leaped onto President John F. Kennedy's limousine as it came under fire in Dallas and prevented a scrambling Jacqueline Kennedy from falling to the ground, died on Friday at his home in Belvedere, Calif. Mr. Hill, hailed for his bravery but long tormented by his inability to save the president's life, was 93."

New York Times: "Roberta Flack, the magnetic singer and pianist whose intimate blend of soul, jazz and folk made her one of the most popular artists of the 1970s, died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 88."

New York Times: "Pope Francis is suffering from 'initial, mild kidney failure' in addition to the serious respiratory illness that has left the 88-year-old pontiff in critical condition in a Rome hospital, the Vatican said on Sunday. Describing a 'complex' clinical picture, the Vatican said that the kidney ailment was 'at present under control,' and that there had been no repeat of the respiratory crisis that the pope had experienced on Saturday. The pope was 'alert and well oriented,' the Vatican said, and he attended Mass in his suite along with the medical staff caring for him."