The Conversation -- March 3, 2025

⭐John Hudson, from the Washington Post's live updates of something: “... Donald Trump has decided to pause all future deliveries of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine in an extraordinary move aimed at pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the negotiating table with Russia as Ukraine fends off a military invasion from the Kremlin, said two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.”

Marion Solletty of Politico: “French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday declared the alliance with the U.S. is seriously wounded and called ... Donald Trump’s attitude toward Ukraine 'an indecency.' 'On Friday evening, a staggering scene unfolded, marked by brutality and a desire to humiliate, the aim of which was to threaten Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into surrendering to the demands of his aggressor,' Bayrou said in a speech to the National Assembly....”

David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada would go into effect Tuesday, ending a month-long delay that saw both U.S. neighbors scramble unsuccessfully to head off the punishing trade action and sending stock prices into a swift decline. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down around 1.5 percent Monday, as investors digested Trump’s comments. The broader S&P 500 index fell nearly 2 percent. Both market measures are now in the red since Trump’s election win. Imposing tariffs on everything Americans buy from Mexico and Canada is an extraordinary political gamble by a president who was returned to power by voters angered over years of high inflation. The new import taxes are likely to raise the market prices of Mexican tequila, beer and avocados, along with Canadian crude oil and lumber, testing consumer patience with Trump’s approach.” CNBC's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada are poised to massively jack up prices for new cars in the United States, Bloomberg reports. In fact, Bloomberg writes that the tariffs 'risk driving up US car prices by as much as $12,000, further squeezing consumers and wreaking havoc across the intricate web of automotive supply lines spanning the continent.'" ~~~

~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: “Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday he is prepared to cut off electricity exports to the U.S. if ... [Donald] Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods go through. 'If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy with a smile on my face,' Ford told reporters at a mining convention in downtown Toronto, the Toronto Sun reported.”

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the New York Times: “Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued 'wall of receipts,' erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers. Late Sunday night, the group erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, representing more than 40 percent of all the contracts listed on its site last week. The deleted items included five of the seven largest savings that it had claimed credit for just last week. At the same time, the group added about 1,000 additional canceled contracts, worth smaller total savings. It was the second time in a week that DOGE had deleted some of its greatest claims of success.”

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: “The top agent at the F.B.I.’s New York field office said in an email Monday that he had been forced out of his job, following clashes with Justice Department officials over Trump administration directives. The veteran agent, James E. Dennehy, was told Friday to retire from his role leading the F.B.I.’s largest field office, delivering another blow to the senior ranks of the bureau. Mr. Dennehy, who had been running the office since September, had angered Trump administration officials by supporting bureau leaders who resisted turning over the names of those who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Dennehy had also angered Attorney General Pam Bondi by what she claimed was the New York office’s failure to turn over all the investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier charged with sex trafficking who killed himself in prison. Ms. Bondi provided no evidence to back up her assertion.” The NBC News report is here.

Adam Cancryn of Politico: “The top spokesperson at the Health and Human Services Department has abruptly quit after clashing with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his close aides over their management of the agency amid a growing measles outbreak.... Thomas Corry announced on Monday that he had resigned 'effective immediately,' just two weeks after joining the department as its assistant secretary for public affairs.... [Over and above his disagreements with Kennedy & Kenndy's chief of staff about the management of HHS,] Corry had also grown uneasy with Kennedy’s muted response to the intensifying outbreak of measles in Texas....”

Siobhan O'Grady & Serhii Korolchuk of the Washington Post: Ukrainians mock Trump & Co. for whining about President Zelensky's attire.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: The New York Times has blocked me because I read too fast; their system thinks I'm a bot. And there's no getting through. So I'll be making do with other media reports until the Times decides I'm a slow enough reader.

Not content with destroying the country, liberal democratic values and the Western alliance, Trump is determined to destroy Earth. ~~~

~~~ David Gelles, et al., of the New York Times: “In a few short weeks..., [Donald] Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet. With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry. He is abandoning efforts to reduce global warming, even as the world has reached record levels of heat that scientists say is driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels.... To achieve such a wholesale overhaul of the country’s climate policies in such a short time, the Trump administration has reneged on federal grants, fired workers en masse and attacked longstanding environmental regulations.... On Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, making it the only nation to walk away.” ~~~

     ~~~ FYI, Ben Noll of the Washington Post: “Meteorological winter, which runs from December to February, ended this weekend.... It ended the coldest three month period in the United States since the winter of 2013 to 2014.... Despite the frigid temperatures, 67 percent of the country experienced below-average snowfall.”

Francesca Ebel of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s rewrite of decades of U.S. foreign policy on Russia, laid bare in the Oval Office confrontation between ... Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is bringing Washington into alignment with Moscow, the Kremlin said Sunday — a shift that could upend the geopolitics that have governed international relations since World War II . 'The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, state television reported Sunday. 'This largely aligns with our vision.' Moscow’s vision, which has focused on a push to reclaim influence over much or all of the former Soviet Union and defeat liberal democracy, has made Russia a pariah to the West.... The Oval Office blowup last week ... has been seen here as a 'gift' to the Kremlin.” The Guardian's report is here. Want more evidence Peskov is right? -- See story linked below, on how Hegseth has disarmed U.S. cybersecurity ops against Russia.

Sky News: "Volodymyr Zelenskyy was advised to wear a suit to the White House and Donald Trump was offended when he didn't, according to reports.... Amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands, it was Mr Zelenskyy's outfit that seemed to set the meeting off on a bad footing. As Mr Trump shook Mr Zelenskyy's hand at the entrance to the West Wing, he said: 'He is all dressed up today.' Then, during the disastrous press conference, Brian Glenn, who is the chief White House correspondent for right-wing website Real America's Voice [MB: and also the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene, so obviously a man of taste & discernment], asked Mr Zelenskyy why he doesn't wear a suit and accused him of having a lack of respect for America. 'I will wear a costume when this war is finished,' the Ukrainian leader responded." ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: Watching over the trainwreck of a press availability was a bust of Winston Churchill, reportedly placed in the Oval office at Trump's request. "Images also began circulating of Winston Churchill visiting the White House during the Second World War, dressed in a wartime 'siren suit' [MB: so called because Churchill said he could don it in half-a-minute if warning sirens went off when he wasn't dressed]. Churchill wore the one-piece air raid outfit during a visit to President Franklin D Roosevelt, in which he hoped to persuade the American public to join the war." A number of photo captions I've read say the photos of Churchill wearing a casual coverall on the White House lawn were taken in January 1942. In fairness to Churchill, he stayed at the White House from just before Christmas 1941 till some time in January 1942, with a side trip to Ottawa in late December. So the coverall Churchill wore in the photo op was not the only outfit in his suitcase; there are photos of him wearing a suit, a sports jacket, black-tie and a full military uniform during the visit. In any case, the U.S. already had declared war on Japan and Germany. Thanks to Bill near San Jose for the hint. ~~~

Marie: It is not only Putin who is delighted by the Trump/Vance performance. ~~~

    ~~~ Amy Hawkins of the Guardian: “The damage caused by Donald Trump to the United States’ reputation is creating opportunities for China, particularly with regards to Taiwan, according to a retired senior colonel from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Speaking to the Guardian in Beijing, Zhou Bo said that Trump was damaging the US’s reputation 'more than all of his predecessors combined'. 'By the end of his second term, I believe America’s global image will simply become more tarnished, its international standing will just go down further,' Zhou said. The people of Taiwan 'know that America is going down', which 'might affect their mentality' with regards to China.”

Unilateral Disarmament. Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia, according to a current official and two former officials briefed on the secret instructions. The move is apparently part of a broader effort to draw President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into talks on Ukraine and a new relationship with the United States. Mr. Hegseth’s instructions, part of a larger re-evaluation of all operations against Russia, have not been publicly explained. But they were issued before ... [Donald] Trump’s public blowup in the Oval Office with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Friday.... Retaining access to major Russian networks for espionage purposes is critical to understanding Mr. Putin’s intentions as he enters negotiations, and to tracking the arguments within Russia about what conditions to insist upon and what could be given up.... The retreat from offensive cyberoperations against Russian targets represents a huge gamble.... U.S. officials have said Russia has continued to try to penetrate U.S. networks, including in the first weeks of the Trump administration.” Read on. The Record report, which broke the news, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is like an 18th-century battle, where the two sides march on each other in formation, then the soldiers on one side suddenly drop their guns and sit down in the field. The story probably won't get a lot of attention unless Russia launches a major cyberattack that affects a lot of Americans, but it's astounding. Trump is not giving up only Ukraine to Russia; he's giving up the U.S. And oddly, it's contrary to his usual strong-man fakery. Putin has fought a bloody war against Ukraine, but he never had to fire a shot against the U.S. ~~~

     ~~~ Victor Goury-Laffont of Politico: “French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot voiced his confusion over reports that the United States' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a halt of offensive cyber operations against Russia.... The French minister said European Union countries 'are constantly the targets' of Russian cyberattacks.... Both French diplomatic officials and President Emmanuel Macron have repeatedly accused Russia of engaging in hybrid warfare against France through cyberattacks. 'Russia is attacking us on information, cyber,' Macron said last month, claiming that Moscow was seeking to 'destabilize our democracies.'”

Edward Wong of the New York Times: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked 'emergency authorities' to bypass Congress and send $4 billion in weapons to Israel, the second time in a month that the Trump administration has skirted the process of congressional approval for sending arms to the country. Mr. Rubio did not explain in a statement announcing the decision on Saturday why he was using an emergency authority. He said only that the Trump administration would 'continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s longstanding commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats.' State Department officials told the two congressional committees in the House and Senate that review foreign weapons sales about the emergency declaration on Friday. At least one congressional official privately expressed alarm at the bypassing of the review.”

Some Would Be Heroes. John Hudson of the Washington Post: “A senior career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development was placed on leave Sunday on the same day he disseminated a detailed memo to staff describing the U.S. government’s 'failure' to provide lifesaving assistance around the world because of actions by ... Donald Trump’s political appointees. The memo, by Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health, contradicts claims by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a functioning system is in place for exempting lifesaving assistance from the aid freeze imposed by Trump on his first week in office. 'USAID’s failure to implement lifesaving humanitarian assistance under the waiver is the result of political leadership,' says the memo, obtained by The Washington Post. 'This will no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale,' the memo says.... Sen. Brian Schatz, the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid, said 'These new details confirm our worst fears: the illegal and systematic dismantling of USAID will cause real suffering and deaths that are entirely preventable.'” The NBC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw foreign aid and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development is likely to cause enormous human suffering, according to estimates by the agency itself. Among them: up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year, and as many as 166,000 additional deaths; 200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually, and hundreds of millions of infections; one million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition, which is often fatal, each year; more than 28,000 new cases of such infectious diseases as Ebola and Marburg every year. Those stark projections were laid out in a series of memos by Nicholas Enrich, acting assistant administrator for global health at U.S.A.I.D.... Mr. Enrich was placed on administrative leave on Sunday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Enrich's memo is here, via the New York Times. This is a gift link.

Corruption? What Corruption? Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “Cryptocurrency prices surged Sunday after ... Donald Trump heralded the creation of a national 'reserve' for a variety of cryptocurrencies, from bitcoin to lesser-known digital tokens. On his Truth Social platform, Trump said a 'Crypto Strategic Reserve' would help ensure 'the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.'... Solana, the underlying blockchain platform for what are known as meme coins, including the president’s official $TRUMP token, rose 26 percent. The Trump coin was up more than 34 percent.... Jason Furman, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, was among the skeptics who criticized the idea. 'Torn as to whether this is more dumb or more corrupt,' he said on X.” In his post, Trump accused the Biden administration of “corrupt attacks” on the “critical [crypto] industry.” CNBC's story is here.

Corruption? What Corruption? Wes Davis of the Verge: “Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday ordered staff 'to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal' to upgrade air traffic control communications, anonymous sources have told Rolling Stone. The story follows reports that Starlink may be taking the job from Verizon, which already has a multibillion-dollar contract with the government to improve the system. According to Rolling Stone, the talks 'have mostly, if not entirely, been delivered verbally,' something its sources say is 'unusual for a matter like this.' One person the outlet spoke with suggested that it looked like 'someone does not want a paper trail.' Rolling Stone says it’s not clear whether the Verizon contract has ended yet, nor if any Starlink deal is official. Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX, which DOGE head Elon Musk owns.... Musk insisted last week that Verizon’s system was 'breaking down very rapidly' and putting flyers at risk. He later corrected himself, noting the Verizon system is 'not yet operational' and that the one he was criticizing 'was made [MB: by??] L3 Harris.' He also claimed Starlink is providing terminals for free to 'restore air traffic control connectivity.'”

Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk portray themselves as near-absolutists when it comes to free speech.... But since taking office, the president has mounted what critics call his own sweeping attack on freedom of expression. Some of it aims to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion and what he terms 'radical gender ideology.' Some of it is aimed at media organizations whose language he dislikes. In other cases, the attacks target opponents who have spoken sharply about the administration. Together, critics — and in some cases, judges — have said Trump’s efforts ... threaten the First Amendment rights of private groups and individuals.... Trump’s orders banning DEI efforts threaten organizations receiving federal money if they advocate for diversity and inclusion. That violates the First Amendment, a judge said recently, because it targets 'viewpoints the government wishes to punish and, apparently, attempt to extinguish.'... District Judge Adam Adelson ... [called the anti-DEI orders] '... textbook viewpoint-based discrimination.' The administration has appealed the ruling.”

Paige Skinner of the Huffington Post: “Elon Musk ... wrote on social media that he agrees the United States should leave NATO and the United Nations. On Saturday, Musk quote-tweeted 'I agree' to a post from someone who wrote, 'It’s time to leave NATO and the UN.'... Martin Paasi, a member of the Finnish parliament, responded to Musk’s post, writing, 'I don’t think anyone will trust the US government for the next few decades.'... 'And you know, I hate to tell you this about NATO if we ever needed their help, let’s say we were attacked, I don’t believe they’d be there,' Trump said in January at a Las Vegas rally. 'I don’t believe. I know the people. I know them. I can tell you country by country who would be there and who – but I don’t believe they’d be there.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump is so damned ignorant that he doesn't seem to know that the ONLY time NATO has invoked Article 5 -- its collective defense clause -- was in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. That is, the U.S. is the ONLY country in the 75-year history of the alliance that has directly benefited from Article 5. Not Denmark, not the U.K. not Germany, not France. Screw these dumb-assed SOBs.

Fenit Nirappil & Elana Gordon of the Washington Post: “Texas’s worst measles eruption in three decades has surged to 146 known cases, with the true toll likely much higher, exposing how under-vaccinated communities are unnecessarily vulnerable to one of the world’s most contagious diseases, experts say.... The life-threatening outbreak in West Texas starkly illustrates the stakes of slipping immunization rates and the ascension of vaccine skeptics, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the highest levels of the public health establishment. And it has revealed how fear and the scientifically false claims of the anti-vaccine movement have seeped into communities such as Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, hardening attitudes about vaccines, pro and con, in the face of a dangerous, preventable disease.... While most children with measles recover, as many as 1 in 20 develop pneumonia, according to the CDC....

“In an op-ed published Sunday on the Fox News website, Kennedy called on parents to discuss measles shots with their health-care providers. 'The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,' Kennedy wrote. 'Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.'”

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, wait. Doesn't Kennedy's second sentence contradict the first? How can a decision that affects the entire community be a "personal" one. Besides, Texas law requires children to get a measles vaccine before entering school, so obviously even backward Texas legislator think vaccines are a necessity for integration into the community. ~~~

     ~~~ Teddy Rosenbluth of the New York Times: “In a first test of the Trump administration’s ability to respond to an infectious disease emergency, its top health official has shied away from one of the government’s most important tools, experts said on Sunday: loudly and directly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated.... If the Texas outbreak offers a window into the Trump administration’s approach to public health, it spells trouble for the future, some researchers said.... Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, was widely criticized as minimizing the measles outbreak in West Texas at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. In a social media post on Friday, he took a new tack, saying that the outbreak was a 'top priority' for his department, Health and Human Services. He noted various ways in which the department is aiding Texas, among them by funding the state’s immunization program and updating advice that doctors give children vitamin A. But on neither occasion did Mr. Kennedy himself advise Americans to make sure their children got the shots. On Sunday night, he edged closer in an opinion piece for Fox News.... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of H.H.S., did not send its first substantive notice about the outbreak until Thursday, almost a month after the first cases in Texas were reported.... Over the years, [Kennedy] has suggested that the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella was associated with autism and that measles outbreaks were mostly 'fabricated' to fatten drug makers’ profits.”

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: “Congress has less than two weeks to extend federal spending laws and keep the government open, but now a clash over ... Donald Trump’s attempt to seize powers the Constitution delegates to lawmakers threatens to stall talks and force a shutdown. Republican negotiators walked away from talks over the weekend to reach a deal on a top-line number on how much the federal government should spend for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30. Democrats had said that number is irrelevant if Trump refuses to spend the money in accordance with the law — or if he empowers billionaire Elon Musk and his U.S. DOGE Service to terminate federal contracts and lay off tens of thousands of federal workers without regard to Congress’s wishes.... Democrats say they want assurances from congressional Republican and the White House that the administration will actually spend the money included in any new law preventing a shutdown.”

Maya Miller of the New York Times: “Rather than boycott President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, some Democratic lawmakers are inviting former federal workers to the speech on Tuesday as a way to protest the mass firings and funding cuts that have defined Mr. Trump’s first month back in office.”

What I Learned Reading Saturday's Comments

Akhilleus: "Fat Hitler’s excuse for hitting our neighbors with tariffs, his favorite economic cudgel ... is fentynal.... But there’s something that causes far more deaths per year than fentynal, almost three times as many, but it’s something he and his billionaire bros work hard to make worse on an hourly basis: Poverty." A report in the U.C. Riverside News, which Akhilleus linked, says, "A University of California, Riverside, (UCR) paper published Monday, April 17, in the Journal of the American Medical Association associated poverty with an estimated 183,000 deaths in the United States in 2019 among people 15 years and older."

According to this CDC press release (will we be getting reports like this anymore?), 74,702 American residents died of fentanyl overdoses in 2023, a slight decrease from the previous year. So there's the arithmetic.

As for blaming Canada for fentanyl deaths in the U.S., RAS linked this Globe & Mail report: “The Trump administration is using misleading fentanyl figures to justify tariffs against Canada, relying on a dataset that includes drugs traced to Mexico, a Globe and Mail investigation has found. Citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the White House has asserted that 43 pounds of fentanyl was intercepted at the border last fiscal year, marking a 'massive 2,050 per cent increase' compared with the year prior, when two pounds of the deadly synthetic drug was seized.... Donald Trump has invoked the 43-pound figure as grounds for threats of punishing trade measures.... However..., U.S. border agents confirmed to The Globe that the agency’s methodology for attributing seizures to the northern border doesn’t hinge on whether the fentanyl ... came from Canada. It could have been seized hundreds of kilometres inland, and it may have no ties to Canada whatsoever.” (P.S. If the link doesn't work for you, Google the story. The G&M firewalled me when I tried RAS's link, but Google let me thru.)

Then laura h. linked this New York Times op-ed by Brian Goldstone: “The very phrase 'working homeless' should be a contradiction, an impossibility in a nation that claims hard work leads to stability. And yet, their homelessness is not only pervasive but also persistently overlooked — excluded from official counts, ignored by policymakers, treated as an anomaly rather than a disaster unfolding in plain sight. Today, the threat of homelessness is most acute not in the poorest regions of the country, but in the richest, fastest-growing ones. In places like these, a low-wage job is homelessness waiting to happen.”

My dentist's assistant isn't homeless. But she is a 40-year-old married mother who told me yesterday that for the first time in her adult life she is not holding down three jobs at once to keep her family solvent. A friend of mine is looking for a rental apartment, so yesterday I noodled around the Internet to see what I could find for her. I could not find one place in a fairly wide geographical area that looked both decent and affordable. And I would not say this is a "rich, fast-growing" part of the country. But I would say it's unaffordable. My own house, which I purchased 10 years ago, has trebled in value; I have made some valuable improvements (that is, ones the tax man knows about) but nothing that would even come close to doubling the value of the property, much less trebling it. So "working homeless"? Of course.

Of course, this isn't all I learned in Saturday's Comments. But these three comments fit together in a way that gives us a jarring picture of just how terrible the Trump/Project 2025 policies are. They are designed to impoverish and kill as many people as possible. And of course, they use lies to "justify" the policies and distractions -- fentanyl! from Mexico! and Canada! -- to make sure the dimwits don't notice the damage Trump & the Trumpettes are raining down on them. Democrats sort of know this, but they are remarkably complacent. They should be shouting their objections. They should be educating voters. They should be proposing solutions. They are not. They are not. They are not.

P.S. To add meat to the theme, late Saturday night, Ken. W. added this Reuters story to the Comments: “The Trump administration has pulled the plug on a team of tech-savvy civil servants that helped to build the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax-filing service and revamp websites across government, a spokesperson for the General Service Administration said on Saturday. GSA’s Director of Technology Transformation Services Thomas Shedd notified employees of a digital service team known as 18F that their jobs had been terminated as they had been identified as 'non-critical.' Roughly 90 18F employees were immediately locked out of their devices.... Billionaire Elon Musk ... earlier this month responded to a post on X that called 18F a 'far-left government-wide computer office' by saying the group has been 'deleted.'” As Ken wrote, “Of course they did.” ~~~

     ~~~ The Musk/Trump administration will do anything to punish, harass and overburden people of low and modest incomes. And, as you can see from Musk's one-word rejoinder, he will carelessly hurt people based on casually-conceived, unsupported rumors. He's a natural sadist.

The Conversation -- March 2, 2025

Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: “During his first six weeks in office..., Donald Trump has embarked on a dizzying teardown of the federal government and attacks on long-standing institutions in an attempt to increase his own authority. He has pardoned those who attacked the U.S. Capitol to overturn his 2020 election loss, placed loyalists atop the FBI and military, and purged the Department of Justice, which dropped investigations against Trump allies. He declared control over independent agencies such as the Federal Election Commission, punished media outlets for coverage he dislikes and his allies suggested he could defy court orders. Those who monitor democracy across the globe had warned that a second Trump term could endanger America’s 240-year experiment with democracy. His opening weeks in office have done nothing to dispel those concerns. 'Trump is using the classic elected authoritarian playbook,” said Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College, who joined more than 800 other political scientists in signing a letter warning that Trump is undermining the rule of law and the basic constitutional principle of checks and balances. 'It’s almost embarrassing how crude it is.'”

Luke Broadwater del New York Times: Donald «Trump firmó una orden que designa el inglés como lengua oficial de los Estados Unidos, informó el sábado la Casa Blanca. La orden no requería ningún cambio en los programas federales y parecía ser en gran medida simbólica. Pero el pronunciamiento supuso la mayor victoria hasta la fecha para el movimiento English-only del país, vinculado desde hace tiempo a los esfuerzos por restringir la educación bilingüe y la inmigración a Estados Unidos. Más de 30 estados ya han designado el inglés como lengua oficial .... La orden ejecutiva anula un mandato de la era Clinton que obligaba a las agencias y a los beneficiarios de fondos federales a proporcionar asistencia lingüística a las personas que no hablan inglés, pero permite a las agencias mantener las políticas actuales y proporcionar documentos y servicios en otros idiomas.... Los informes de la orden prevista el viernes fueron rápidamente vitoreados por aquellos alineados con las políticas antiinmigración del Sr. Trump.»

Okay, in case your Spanish (or this DeepL program) sucks, here's the story en Inglés. (I immediately found one mistake in the DeepL Spanish, so it may have many): ~~~

~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Donald “Trump signed an order designating English as the official language of the United States, the White House said on Saturday. The order did not require any changes to federal programs and appeared to be largely symbolic. But the pronouncement was the biggest victory yet for the country’s English-only movement, which has long been tied to efforts to restrict bilingual education and immigration to the United States. More than 30 states have already designated English as their official language.... The executive order rescinds a Clinton-era mandate that required agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, but allows agencies to keep current policies and provide documents and services in other languages.... Reports of the planned order on Friday were quickly cheered by those aligned with Mr. Trump’s anti-immigration policies.”

Marcy Wheeler lays out "five ways Trump is sabotaging the United States." Thanks to RAS for the link.

"Go Ski in Russia." Common Dreams: "Over a thousand Vermonters lined both sides of Route 100 in Waitsfield, Vermont, Saturday morning protesting Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting nearby Sugarbush Resort this weekend with his family.... Protesters shouted obscenities and waved signs as the Vance motorcade rolled past. 'Vance is a traitor. Go Ski in Russia,' one sign read." MB: Thank you, Vermont. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Nevertheless, He Persisted Fled. Coral Marcos of the Guardian: “While Vance, who admitted Friday he has never been to Ukraine, fled to an undisclosed location to evade protesters, some commentators noted that Zelenskyy, who stayed in Ukraine during Russia’s invasion, was returning to a Kyiv still under attack.... The aggressive meeting led to protests in cities and towns across the US, including New York, Los Angeles and Boston, where hundreds gathered to express their support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy. Videos posted on social networks showed hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York’s Times Square, many carrying the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine on their backs. In Los Angeles county, a pro-Ukraine crowd rallied in front of a SpaceX’s facility, and protesters in Boston held an 'emergency rally' for 'fair peace' for Ukraine at Boston Common.” See also NYT & AP stories linked below on more U.S. protests against Presidents* Trump & Musk.

Evan Halper, et al., of the Washington Post: “Elon Musk is trying again on his demand that every federal worker justify their employment weekly. And again, the hastily executed initiative is sowing confusion and resistance throughout the workforce, with many agency heads openly defying it. A second round of emails instructing more than 2 million workers to reply with bullet points listing five things they accomplished over the week ... came a week after the billionaire ... warned those who did not respond to an identical order last weekend that it would be taken as a resignation.... 'The President has made it clear that this is mandatory for the executive branch,' Musk wrote on X on Saturday morning.... Even so, guidance telling workers to ignore the emails came from across the chain of command — from managers, supervisors or other department leaders who did not wait for instructions from agency heads.... The State Department ... sent a brief note early Saturday telling staff to do nothing with the email.... Employees at the [Energy D]epartment said their Trump-appointed leadership appears to be growing exhausted by the haphazard DOGE directives, as the confusion they are creating diverts workers’ attention and agency resources away from the task of implementing the president’s far-reaching orders to gut climate programs, cut clean energy subsidies and enable more fossil fuel production.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, yes, what's left of the Energy Department's staff must get back to its important work of destroying Earth. ~~~

~~~ Evan Halper & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “Amid the tumult of mass firings, the Trump administration’s dismissal of workers who maintain America’s nuclear weapons delivered perhaps the greatest shock. These are people with highly sensitive jobs, the Energy Department would later acknowledge, who should have never been fired. Almost all the workers were rehired in an embarrassing about-face, a prominent example of how the administration has had to reverse dismissals in multiple instances where its scattershot approach caused deeper damage to agencies than anticipated. The employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration are stewards of a sprawling government system that keeps 5,000 nuclear warheads secure and ready. They make sure radiation doesn’t leak, weapons don’t mistakenly detonate and plutonium doesn’t get into the wrong hands.

“Yet late the night before Valentine’s Day, the Trump administration perfunctorily fired 17 percent of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s workforce, over the strenuous objections of senior nuclear officials.... The novice cost-cutters installed at the Energy Department, several nuclear workers interviewed said, appeared to lack a basic understanding of the work of the NNSA, an arm of the department that is a key pillar of the national defense.... The administration’s cost-cutting blitz, rushed and lacking transparency, has forced it into other reversals after the practical or political implications of certain firings became clear.”

Rubio Is Killing People to Please Trump, and He Knows It. Anna Barry-Jester & Brett Murphy of ProPublica: “After the Trump administration moved to freeze nearly $60 billion in foreign aid in January, officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly assured Americans that lifesaving operations would continue. 'We don’t want to see anybody die,' he told reporters in early February.... In late January, Rubio and one of his top aides, Peter Marocco, said ... dozens of [programs] could continue, granting them temporary waivers while the officials conducted what they have called a 'targeted, case-by-case review' of all foreign aid programs managed by the State Department and USAID. That review, they said, would take three months. Four weeks later, on Wednesday, Rubio and Marocco completely ended nearly 10,000 aid programs in one fell swoop — including those they had granted waivers just days earlier — saying the programs did not align with Trump’s agenda. The move consigns untold numbers of the world’s poorest children, refugees and other vulnerable people to death.... The U.S. has also refused to pay almost $2 billion that the government owes aid organizations for work they’ve already completed.”

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the New York Times: “Even after Mr. Musk’s group deleted several large erroneous claims from its [so-called 'wall of receipts'] last week, The New York Times found that it had added new mistakes — claiming credit for 'canceling' contracts that had actually ended under previous presidents, [including George W. Bush, 20 years ago]. 'These are not savings,' said Lisa Shea Mundt, whose firm, The Pulse of GovCon, tracks federal spending. 'The money’s been spent. Period. Point blank.' These mistakes do not mean DOGE has not made cuts to the federal government. It has, deeply, by pushing widespread layoffs of employees and cancellations of active contracts, and by helping instigate the demise of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But the repeated errors have raised questions about the quality and veracity of the information that the Musk team is putting out.... The mistakes also seem to call into question the team members’ competence — whether they understand the government well enough to cut it while avoiding catastrophe....

“Mr. Musk’s group has said that it has saved taxpayers $65 billion, by cutting contracts, leases, federal employees and other items in the federal budget. But it has itemized only two of those categories: cancellations of contracts and leases. When adding up DOGE’s claimed savings for each item, those categories collectively account for about $10 billion, less than one-sixth of the total. When DOGE first published its list of canceled contracts, there were about 1,100 examples. The five largest were wrong.”

Raphael Satter of Reuters: “The Trump administration has pulled the plug on a team of tech-savvy civil servants that helped to build the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax-filing service and revamp websites across government, a spokesperson for the General Service Administration said on Saturday. GSA’s Director of Technology Transformation Services Thomas Shedd notified employees of a digital service team known as 18F that their jobs had been terminated as they had been identified as 'non-critical.' Roughly 90 18F employees were immediately locked out of their devices.... Billionaire Elon Musk ... earlier this month responded to a post on X that called 18F a 'far-left government-wide computer office' by saying the group has been 'deleted.'” Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As he wrote last night, “Of course they did.” Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ ⭐A Letter from 18F to the American People: "For over 11 years, 18F has been proudly serving you to make government technology work better. We are non-partisan civil servants. 18F has worked on hundreds of projects, all designed to make government technology not just efficient but effective, and to save money for American taxpayers.  However, all employees at 18F – a group that the Trump Administration GSA Technology Transformation Services Director called 'the gold standard' of civic tech – were terminated today at midnight ET.... Before today’s RIF, DOGE members and GSA political appointees demanded and took access to IT systems that hold sensitive information. They ignored security precautions.... We came to the government to fix things. And we’re not done with this work yet. More to come."

Social Security keeps 18 million seniors out of poverty every year. Trump and Musk are lying about it for one reason: so they can cut, privatize & dismantle it. We must EXPAND Social Security benefits, not cut them. And I am introducing a bill to just that. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), on X ~~~

~~~ Marco Margaritoff of the Huffington Post: “Elon Musk is calling Social Security a 'Ponzi scheme,' prompting suspicion that the world’s richest man is merely hoping to privatize a social safety net that has existed since the 1930s — and has kept millions of elderly, poor and disabled Americans from destitution. The billionaire argued Friday on 'The Joe Rogan Experience' podcast that the United States government is 'one big pyramid scheme' before blasting Social Security as 'the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.'... Musk ... added that 'people are living way longer than expected' and thus the government’s obligation to pay the debt 'will be much worse in the future.' The Social Security Administration has said it could face a shortage of funds by 2035. But many Democrats have argued that the program’s funds should simply be shored up by eliminating the cap on Social Security taxes for high earners, meaning that people who make a lot of money would pay proportionately more into the program. Elsewhere during his podcast appearance, Musk shared debunked claims about Social Security.”

Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington on Saturday blocked ... [Donald] Trump from ousting the leader of a federal watchdog agency, saying that the effort to remove the official without due cause had violated the law. In an order on Saturday evening, Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted a permanent injunction against the government, allowing Hampton Dellinger to remain the head of the Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal whistle-blowers. The order required the Trump administration to recognize Mr. Dellinger’s authority in that position, barring it from taking any action to 'treat him in any way as if he has been removed' or otherwise interfere with his work. The administration immediately moved to challenge the ruling, starting an appeals process that appeared likely to end at the Supreme Court.” Politico's report is here.

Isabelle Taft, et al., of the New York Times: “Thousands of people gathered on Saturday at national parks from California to Maine to protest the Trump administration’s firing of at least 1,000 National Park Service employees last month. A group called Resistance Rangers — consisting of about 700 off-duty rangers, including some who were fired from the National Park Service — tried to organize protests at each of the country’s 433 national park sites on Saturday to stand up against what they see as threats to public lands, including the job cuts. By the afternoon, there were protests at at least 145 sites....”

Rodrique Ngowi & Jonathan Cooper of the AP: “Demonstrators gathered outside Tesla stores across the U.S. Saturday to protest the automaker’s billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, and his push to slash government spending on behalf of ... Donald Trump. The demonstrations are part of a growing backlash in North America and Europe to Musk’s disruptive role in Washington. Critics of Trump and Musk hope to discourage and stigmatize purchases of Tesla, the electric car company that is the world’s most valuable automaker.”

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New York. Nicholas Fandos & Emma Fitzsimmons of the New York Times: “Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Saturday that he would run for mayor of New York City, upending the race to unseat Eric Adams and setting up an audacious comeback attempt three years after he resigned in disgrace.With near-universal name recognition, deep-pocketed supporters and a decade as governor, Mr. Cuomo is expected to quickly assume front-runner status for the June Democratic primary, albeit with hefty baggage. In a 17-minute video announcing his run, Mr. Cuomo, 67, attempted to reintroduce himself to New Yorkers on his preferred terms: as a tested manager, law-and-order moderate and forceful leader capable of rescuing a city that he said 'feels threatening, out of control, and in crisis.' He blamed 'failed Democratic leadership' but did not explicitly mention Mr. Adams, and said he would try to work with ... [Donald] Trump where he could.... Mr. Cuomo has spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars for legal fees fighting to clear his name after 11 sexual harassment accusations prompted his resignation in August 2021. To win, he will have to convince New Yorkers that he is innocent — or at least to look beyond his transgressions and a field of newer talent.”

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Israel, et al. Eve Sampson & Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: “Israel announced on Sunday morning that it was halting the entry of all goods and humanitarian assistance into Gaza immediately, hours after proposing a temporary extension of the now-expired cease-fire with Hamas. The drastic step to block aid appeared to be aimed at pressuring Hamas into accepting the new framework — and to make the Israeli government’s negotiating position clear. Under Israel’s proposal for an extension, which it attributed to the U.S. envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, half of the remaining hostages held in Gaza would be released to Israel on the first day of the agreement. If, at the end of the temporary extension — stretching until the end of Passover on April 20 — a permanent truce had been reached, the rest of the hostages would then be returned.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday.

Ukraine, et al. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: “European leaders scrambled on Sunday to salvage Ukraine’s relationship with the United States, after a bitter rupture last week between President Volodymyr Zelensky and ... [Donald] Trump. They pledged to assemble a European 'coalition of the willing' to develop a plan for ending Ukraine’s war with Russia, which they hope could win the backing of a skeptical Mr. Trump. Gathering in London at the invitation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, the leaders vowed to bolster support for Ukraine. But they also expressed hope that Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump could repair their breach, underscoring Europe’s reluctance to cast off a trans-Atlantic alliance that has kept the peace for 80 years. 'We have to bridge this,' Mr. Starmer said on Sunday to the BBC before the leaders began arriving at Lancaster House, near Buckingham Palace. 'We have to find a way where we can all work together.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do realize that diplomats often have to baby tyrants, but I think Europeans would do well to try a different tack with our tyrant. At best, say it's a shame he doesn't want to play in their playpen anymore; that they love the U.S. and they love Americans, but that Putin's puppets Don & JayDee are just out of step with American/Western ideals. Sad! Update: Now, the following works for me: ~~~

     ~~~ Norway. Alex Evans of the Daily Express: “A petrol giant in Norway has announced a ban on fuel sales to all US forces following Donald Trump's treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, it has been reported. Norwegian firm Haltbakk Bunkers announced it will stop providing fuel to all American forces in Norway as it declared 'No fuel to Americans!'. The firm posted on social media to declare its support for Zelensky as it dealt a hammer blow to US President Trump following the heated spat televised from the Oval Office. It said: 'We have today been witnesses to the biggest s***how ever presented “live on tv” by the current American president and his vice president. Huge credit to the president of Ukraine restraining himself and for keeping calm even though USA put on a backstabbing tv show. It made us sick....'” ~~~

~~~ Mark Santora & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: “In one jaw-dropping meeting, the once unthinkable fear that Ukraine would be forced to engage in a long war against a stronger opponent without U.S. support appeared to move exponentially closer to reality.... An immediate result was that Ukrainians, including opposition politicians, were generally supportive of Mr. Zelensky on Saturday for not bending to Mr. Trump despite tremendous pressure.... Mr. Zelensky signaled on Saturday that he had not completely given up hope of repairing the relationship with Mr. Trump. Posting on social media, he went out of his way to thank the United States, perhaps trying to address Mr. Trump’s complaint on Friday that he was ungrateful.... At the same time, Mr. Zelensky began laying the groundwork for moving ahead with the European countries that have stood by Kyiv’s side. Ukraine announced plans on Saturday for a joint weapons venture with France that would be financed by the interest earned from frozen Russian assets. Later in the day, Mr. Zelensky met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, who has been a supporter of the Ukrainian president in the face of Mr. Trump’s harsh rebukes.... The real affront that prompted the spectacle, many Ukrainians and analysts believe, is that Mr. Zelensky pushed back against some of Mr. Trump’s terms.”