The Conversation -- February 3, 2025

So the Curtain Closes on Act III of "La Tariffa Termina." Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Donald "Trump on Monday delayed his planned tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days after winning concessions from both countries to stem the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States, postponing, at least temporarily, a painful and potentially destabilizing trade war. Tariffs of 10 percent are still set to go into effect on China on Tuesday morning. Mr. Trump said on Monday that he was likely to talk with President Xi Jinping of China within the next 24 hours about a variety of contentious issues, and warned that the 10 percent tariff he has planned to impose was just an 'opening salvo.'" Oh, the Fat Guy sang; it's over. There are no curtain calls, but as the audience files out in relieved exhaustion, a stage hand raises & lowers the gold-fringed maroon velvet curtains again and again as Donno takes bow after bow. Alas, Primo Donno has promised a sequel, "La Tariffa Ritorna," another entry in the emerging genre of improvisational opera buffa.

Vaughn Hillyard, et al., of NBC News: "Employees of the United States Agency for International Development based out of the nation's capital were ordered overnight not to come into the office Monday and to work from home. 'At the direction of Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C. will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025,'" said an email sent to staff overnight, according to a copy obtained by NBC News. The message said agency personnel who normally work at USAID's headquarters 'will work remotely tomorrow' except for people who perform essential on-site and building maintenance duties.... The e-mail provided no reason for the work-from-home directive, but it comes after tech billionaire Elon Musk ... said in the early hours Monday that he and the president were in the process of shutting down USAID." ~~~

~~~ Ellen Knickmeyer, et al., of the AP: "Democrats have delivered a strong rebuke against the Trump administration's attempt to gut an agency that provides crucial aid overseas to fund education and fight starvation and disease, calling it illegal, vowing a court fight and lambasting billionaire Elon Musk for wielding so much power in Washington. Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency's Washington headquarters, and officers blocked the lawmakers from entering the lobby Monday.... The fast-moving developments come after thousands of USAID employees already have been laid off and programs shut down in the two weeks since Trump became president. And they show the extraordinary power of Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration. Musk announced closing of the agency early Monday, as Trump's secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was out of the country on a trip to Central America.... Rubio told reporters in San Salvador that he was now the acting administrator of USAID but had delegated his authorities to someone else. The change means that USAID is no longer an independent government agency as it had been for decades -- although its new status will likely be challenged in court -- and will be run out of the State Department."

The New York Times' live updates of the Fat Primo Donno's opera buffa "La Tariffa Termina" are here: "President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico struck a deal with the Trump administration to delay stiff tariffs, which were set to take effect on Tuesday, for a month as the two countries reached a series of agreements on border security. Ms. Sheinbaum agreed to deploy 10,000 additional troops, who ... [Donald] Trump said would be designated to stop the flow of migrants and illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. In return, Mexico will get at least a temporary reprieve from the blanket 25 percent tariffs Mr. Trump announced on Saturday, as well as help from the U.S. government to stanch the movement of guns back over the border, Ms. Sheinbaum said on Monday. The agreement, two days after Mr. Trump also announced tariffs of 25 percent against Canada and 10 percent against China, came amid fears that the measures would disrupt the global economy, roiling stock markets around the world.... Mr. Trump said on Monday that he'd also spoken with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose country has already announced retaliatory levies of 25 percent on U.S. goods, and that they would talk again in the afternoon. China, for its part, vowed to file a case against the United States at the World Trade Organization and take 'corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests.'"

Absent the GOP's very successful voter suppression efforts, Kamala Harris would have won the 2024 presidential election, writes Greg Palast, an investigative journalist who looks as if he stepped out of a 1930s film noir. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Marie: Apparently it takes a Black female reporter -- Erica Green -- at the New York Times to ever-so-politely notice that the POTUS* is a flaming racist & misogynist. "President Trump has promised a 'colorblind and merit-based' society, while also equating diversity with incompetence.... Mr. Trump has aligned himself with those who are brandishing the term D.E.I. as a catchall for discrimination against white people, and using it as a pejorative to attack nonwhite and female leaders as unqualified for their positions." ~~~

~~~ If Superman knew this in the 1050s, whazzamatta with Donald Trump? Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

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Hamed Aleaziz & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has ended Temporary Protected Status, or T.P.S., for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the United States, leaving the population vulnerable to potential deportation in the coming months, according to government documents.... The move..., [Mr.] Trump's first to remove such protections in his second term, signals that he plans to continue a crackdown on the program that began in his first administration, when he sought to terminate the status for migrants from Sudan, El Salvador and Haiti, among others. He was stymied by federal courts that took issue with the way he undid the protections." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "The government of Nicolás Maduro will take in Venezuelans who are deported by the United States..., Donald Trump said Saturday, potentially clearing the way for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the South American country to be sent back to the authoritarian socialist regime that many fled.... Human rights advocates and Venezuelan opposition politicians have warned against repatriating the citizens of a country that under Maduro has been an economically failing, politically repressive pariah state." ~~~

     ~~~ Damned if They're Caught and Damned if They're Not. Marie: Sorry to say, but those same hapless Venezuelan nationals are currently residing in "an economically failing, politically repressive pariah state" and an "authoritarian ... regime."

Trump Threatens More Tariffs. Philip Wen, et al., of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has threatened to widen the scope of his trade tariffs, repeating his warning that the European Union -- and potentially the UK -- will face levies, even as he conceded that Americans could bear some of the economic brunt of a nascent global trade war. It comes as Trump's tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, announced on Saturday, sparked retaliation from all three countries. Mexico and Canada have vowed levies of their own while China and Canada are seeking legal challenges. Trump said on Sunday night that new tariffs on the EU would 'definitely happen', repeating previous complaints about the large US trade deficit with the bloc and his desire for Europe to import more American cars and agricultural products.... Trump appeared to take a softer line on the UK, citing a good relationship with the prime minister, Keir Starmer, while saying tariffs still 'might happen'." ~~~

     ~~~ Zia Weise of Politico: "The European Union is warning ... Donald Trump the bloc will retaliate if he imposes tariffs on EU goods.... France's Industry Minister Marc Ferracci ... demand[ed] a 'biting' response from Brussels, which manages trade relations on behalf of the EU's 27 member countries.... Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's international trade committee, described Trump's tariffs as violating international law. The EU now has to prepare 'to defend our economic interests 1:1,' he added, while calling on Brussels to 'stabilize and quickly expand' trade relations with other countries.... Meanwhile, former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt called the U.S. tariffs a 'blatant attack on its own people and a gift to billionaires, all while tearing apart his closest allies.' He added: 'The EU must not bow to his bullying tactics.'" ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Trump hit back at critics [of his tariffs] and argued the decision was necessary because of 'major' trade deficits with [Mexico, Canada & China]. 'The "Tariff Lobby," headed by the Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal, is working hard to justify Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA,' Trump posted from his Mar-a-Lago estate.... 'This will be the Golden Age of America!' Trump continued. 'Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!). But we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid. We are a country that is now being run with common sense -- and the results will be spectacular!!!'" The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What Trump means by "common sense" is ignoring facts and/or expert analysis. ~~~

~~~ Here's Some Pain. Pia Singh of CNBC: "Stock futures tumbled early Monday to kick off a new trading month, as investors weighed new U.S. tariffs on goods from key trade partners and their potential impact on the economy and corporate profits. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 546 points, or 1.22%. S&P 500 futures dropped 1.4%, while Nasdaq-100 futures lost 1.7%." Here's some more: ~~~

~~~ Vive Le Canada! Marie: I wonder if Kamala Harris had spoken like this, some of the lazy Democrats would not have stayed home and many an ignorant Trump voter would have pulled the lever for Harris & Walz. Thanks again to Julie in Massachusetts for the link: ~~~

~~~ Laya Neelakandan of CNBC: "Ontario will pull all American alcohol from its government-run liquor shelves beginning Tuesday in response to ... Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on Canadian imports. Outlets of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario will also take U.S. products out of its catalog so other retailers can't order or restock those items, according to a Sunday statement by Premier Doug Ford.... The move follows other similar Canadian premiers' announcements of retaliation to the tariffs, including Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston directing the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation to remove all American alcohol from their shelves on Tuesday and British Columbia Premier David Eby directing the BC Liquor Distribution Branch to 'immediately stop buying American liquor from "red states" and remove the top-selling "red-state" brands from the shelves.'"

     ~~~ Des Beiler of the Washington Post: "Canadian sports fans are booing the U.S. national anthem after Trump tariffs. The boos were heard at NHL and NBA games in Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver." MB: Loudmouthed sports fans might not be the most refined experts on international relations. On the other hand, most are probably more refined than the bully/buffoon in the White House. And if they're booing our national anthem, they're booing not just the rider; they're booing the horse he rode in on, too. ~~~

~~~ Brian Mann of NPR: Donald "Trump says illegal street fentanyl is one of the main justifications for sweeping trade tariffs he plans to impose against Canada, China and Mexico on Tuesday.... On Inauguration Day, Trump said foreign drug cartels are 'killing 250,000 [or] 300,000 American people per year.' On Friday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said tariffs are warranted because fentanyl has 'killed tens of millions of Americans.' These claims are false.... During the most severe period of the opioid crisis, in 2022 and 2023, total overdose deaths -- including fentanyl, methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and all other drugs -- peaked at around 114,000 fatalities per year.... State and federal data also shows [show!] the crisis was improving at an unprecedented pace before these tariffs were announced.... [Canada has played almost no role] in the U.S. fentanyl supply."

Three Decades After South African Apartheid Ended, Trump Moves to Revive It. Idrees Ali & Daphne Psaledakis of Reuters: "... Donald Trump said [in a social media post] on Sunday, without citing evidence, that ... "South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.... The United States won't stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!' he said. The United States obligated nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, the most recent U.S. government data showed. Last month South African President Cryil Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that would make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest. The law aims to address racial disparities in land ownership that persist three decades after apartheid's demise in 1994." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The "certain classes of people" who concern Trump are white landowners. Maybe Trump's concern stems from pure racism, or maybe it derives from Jared's survey of South African beachfront property, or maybe it comes from president* and former South African Elon's whispers in Trump's ear. Or something else. Whatever the impetus, it ain't altruistic.

A Trump Appointee Joins the Resistance. Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: "The two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave on Saturday night after refusing to give representatives of Elon Musk access to internal systems, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. And the agency's chief of staff, Matt Hopson, a Trump administration political appointee who had started his job days ago, has resigned, two of the officials said. The employees working for Mr. Musk's task force who clashed with John Voorhees, U.S.A.I.D.'s director of security, and his deputy were seeking to enter a secure area of the agency's offices to get at classified material, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the incident said.... 'USAID is a criminal organization,' Mr. Musk wrote on Sunday in a social media post that many aid workers saw as confirmation the agency would soon be absorbed into the State Department and that some viewed as a potential threat to their personal safety. 'Time for it to die.'" An AP story, which does not mention Hopson, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do remember that the only place the NTSB will update Americans on air safety is on the site owned by this cruel, lying anti-American oligarch. (Story linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Who Are These Jerks, Anyway? Erik Loomis in LG&$ cites a firewalled Wired story by Vittoria Elliott: "Elon Musk's takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of -- and in at least one case, purportedly still in -- college. Most have connections to Musk, and at least two have connections to Musk's longtime associate Peter Thiel, a cofounder and chair of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy.... Wired has identified six young men -- all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24 ... -- who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with 'modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.' The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer. The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Speaking of Jerks.... John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "Since ... Donald Trump took office two weeks ago, the [USAID] has been under siege and whipsawed by aid freezes, personnel purges and confusion. [Elon] Musk ... said on X early Monday that he is in the process closing the agency with Trump's blessing.... Over the weekend, Musk repeatedly denigrated USAID without offering evidence that those working there were corrupt. On X, he called the long-standing government agency 'evil' and a 'viper's nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.'...

"A group of about eight DOGE officials entered the USAID building Saturday and demanded access to every door and floor, despite only a few of them having security clearance, according to a Senate Democratic staff member.... When USAID personnel attempted to block access to some areas, DOGE officials threatened to call federal marshals, the aide said. The DOGE officials were eventually given access to 'secure spaces' including the security office. The Senate staffer also said top officials from USAID's office and the bulk of the staff in USAID's Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs were put on leave later Saturday. Some of them were not notified but had their access to agency terminals suspended."

Kipp Jones of Mediaite: "Sunday afternoon, [Elon] Musk -- presumably after reviewing Treasury Department records -- accused federal employees of 'breaking the law every hour of every day by approving payments that are fraudulent or do not match the funding laws passed by Congress.'" MB: There is no reason whatever to take Musk's word for it. The most generous interpretation is that the Musk's Kidz Klub members are misreading the data; otherwise, he's lying for some nefarious purpose. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: On Saturday, I wrote, in part: This Friday-night heist is far more dangerous than the tariffs Trump just imposed. (1) Most voters probably will not even hear about this, or if they do, it won't register as nearly as important as the tariffs. If people ever get up-in-arms about this, it won't be till they miss their first Social Security check or can't get their EBT cards (food stamps). The tariffs are monumentally stupid, but Trump can legally impose them. Giving non-government employees access to the nation's checkbook, with an eye toward tearing it up, is illegal and unconstitutional. This is a revolutionary act, a piece of the (so far) bloodless coup in which Trump's buddies are taking over another branch of government. ~~~

     [~~~ Krugman (and a few others, incluiding, uh, Canada) think Trump's tariffs are probably illegal, too, but at least Trump is an elected official, unlike the boys in Musk's Teenaged Raiders of the Lost Treasury.] ~~~

     ~~~ Media critic Margaret Sullivan agrees with me. Both the WashPo & the NYT broke alarming stories revealing details of Musk's Invasion of the Treasury. She writes, "The scholar Norman Ornstein had this to say: 'We are in the middle of a fast moving putsch, a right wing authoritarian coup, a five alarm fire, and our media are treating it as if it were a little backyard bonfire.'... Yet, when I looked for that story on major news sites late Sunday morning, it was not being shouted from the rooftops.... Overall, the mainstream media is having as much trouble covering Trump's firehose of chaos as it did covering his campaign." MB: If the media were oblivious, Democrats were even worse. Sen. Ron Wyden was yelling appropriately, but nearly everyone else, including the new chair of the party, were AWOL.

Pemy Levy of Mother Jones: "The power that comes with controlling US government payments is vast. How Musk and Trump might try to leverage that against political or legal opponents -- say, against states that file lawsuits they don't like -- is sobering to consider. So far, the GOP-controlled Congress seems willing to let them do whatever they want." Levy notes that the little Muskovites may not have the power to stop Treasury payments yet, but she asserts, with evidence, that they could get it soon. (Also linked yesterday.)

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "The top agent at the F.B.I.'s New York field office vowed in a defiant email to his staff to 'dig in' after the Trump administration targeted officials involved in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack -- and praised the bureau's interim leaders for defending its independence. 'Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy,' wrote James E. Dennehy, a veteran and highly respected agent who has run the largest and arguably the most important field office in the bureau since September.... He ... suggested he had no intention of stepping down.... [A] sense of dread was stoked by a remarkable questionnaire sent to bureau employees, asking them to describe what, if any, role they had in investigating and prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters. The form requires the employees to say if they collected evidence, provided support services, interviewed witnesses, executed search warrants or testified at trial -- basic activities of F.B.I. employees during the normal and lawful course of their duties. They have until 3 p.m. Monday to complete the forms." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ethan Singer of the New York Times: "More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon, a New York Times analysis has found, as federal agencies rush to heed ... [Donald] Trump's orders targeting diversity initiatives and 'gender ideology.' The purges have removed information about vaccines, veterans' care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics. Doctors, researchers and other professionals often rely on such government data and advisories. Some government agencies appear to have removed entire sections of their website.... Among the pages that have been taken down: More than 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including a thousand research articles filed under preventing chronic disease, S.T.D. treatment guidelines, information about Alzheimer's warning signs, overdose prevention training and vaccine guidelines for pregnant people.... More than 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau.... More than 1,000 pages from the Office of Justice Programs, including a feature on teenage dating violence...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "With his criticism of U.S. Catholic bishops for supporting immigrants, Vice President JD Vance has reignited years of GOP attacks on the Catholic Church as both sides navigate an issue that has divided the nation and the faithful. Catholic leaders expressed dismay after Vance, who is Catholic, questioned whether the church's substantial, decades-long work with migrants is driven by a desire for money.... John Carr, who for two decades led the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' office on social justice efforts, said Vance's criticisms 'showed an unprecedented lack of respect for the work of the Catholic community, lack of restraint in promoting false and outrageous claims that the Church does this for the money and promotes human trafficking, and a lack of knowledge of Catholic teaching and ministry with refugees.... It seemed like an effort to intimidate...'" MB: So, you say Vance is a disrespectful, ignorant, lying bully and conspiracy theorist. Now tell us something we don't know.

A Rude Guest. John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Panama's president Sunday that the status quo at the Panama Canal is 'unacceptable' and, absent 'immediate changes,' would require the United States to take unspecified measures. Rubio's confrontational language, detailed in a State Department summary of the meeting, did not specify whether the United States would consider military action, but said the presence of two Hong Kong-based companies and other Chinese firms around the canal 'is a threat.' Rubio's demands came despite Panama's status as a supportive partner to the United States, especially on migration enforcement.... On that matter, Rubio thanked [President José Raúl] Mulino 'for his support of a joint repatriation program, which has reduced illegal migration,' according to the summary." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Rubio is slated to travel to El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica & the Dominican Republic next. I think the leaders of those countries should tell him not to come as they have other engagements.

That Sound You Hear Is the Mad Brutalist Sculptor Donaldo & His Apprentices Chipping Away at the First Amendment. Annabelle Timset of the Washington Post: "CBS News plans to provide the Federal Communications Commission with the transcript of a '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris that is at the heart of a lawsuit against the network filed by ... Donald Trump -- the latest development in a battle that critics say is being used to target press freedom.... CBS News said in a statement Friday that it will comply with a demand from the FCC to hand over the transcript and camera feeds from Harris's '60 Minutes' interview, which was released in October.... The FCC's demand is based on a complaint from the conservative Center for American Rights that was dismissed on Jan. 16. After Trump was inaugurated, Brendan Carr, whom Trump appointed to lead the FCC, reopened the case."

Marie: Hair-on-fire seems to be the style du jour, and I'm in very good company: ~~~

     ~~~ ⭐Historian Timothy Snyder describes "the coup that is going on now:... The oligarchs have no plan to govern. They will take what they can, and disable the rest. The destruction is the point. They don't want to control the existing order. They want disorder in which their relative power will grow.... Trump's tariffs (which are also likely illegal) are there to make us poor. Trump's attacks on America's closest friends, countries such as Canada and Denmark, are there to make enemies of countries where constitutionalism works and people are prosperous.... Deportations are a spectacle to turn Americans against one another, to make us afraid.... They also create busy-work for law enforcement, locating the 'criminals' in workplaces across the country, as the crime of the century takes place at the very center of power." Thanks to Julie in Massachusetts for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Marion Wiesel, who translated many books written by her husband, Elie Wiesel, including the final edition of his magnum opus, 'Night,' and who encouraged him to pursue a wide-ranging public career, helping him become the most renowned interpreter of the Holocaust, died on Sunday at her home in Greenwich, Conn. She was 94."

The Conversation -- February 2, 2025

Vive La Canada! Marie: I wonder if Kamala Harris had spoken like this, some of the lazy Democrats would not have stayed home and many an ignorant Trump voter would have pulled the lever for Harris & Walz. Thanks again to Julie in Massachusetts for the link: ~~~

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Panama's president Sunday that the status quo at the Panama Canal is 'unacceptable' and, absent 'immediate changes,' would require the United States to take unspecified measures. Rubio's confrontational language, detailed in a State Department summary of the meeting, did not specify whether the United States would consider military action, but said the presence of two Hong Kong-based companies and other Chinese firms around the canal 'is a threat.' Rubio's demands came despite Panama's status as a supportive partner to the United States, especially on migration enforcement, a key priority of the Trump administration. On that matter, Rubio thanked [President José Raúl] Mulino 'for his support of a joint repatriation program, which has reduced illegal migration,' according to the summary." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Rubio is slated to travel to El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica & the Dominican Republic next. I think the leaders of those countries should tell him not to come as they have other engagements.

A Trump Appointee Joins the Resistance. Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: "The two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave on Saturday night after refusing to give representatives of Elon Musk access to internal systems, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. And the agency's chief of staff, Matt Hopson, a Trump administration political appointee who had started his job days ago, has resigned, two of the officials said. The employees working for Mr. Musk's task force who clashed with John Voorhees, U.S.A.I.D.'s director of security, and his deputy were seeking to enter a secure area of the agency's offices to get at classified material, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the incident said.... 'USAID is a criminal organization,' Mr. Musk wrote on Sunday in a social media post that many aid workers saw as confirmation the agency would soon be absorbed into the State Department and that some viewed as a potential threat to their personal safety. 'Time for it to die.'" An AP story, which does not mention Hopson, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do remember that the only place the NTSB will update Americans on air safety is on the site owned by this cruel, lying anti-American oligarch. (Story linked below.)

Who Are These Jerks, Anyway? Erik Loomis in LG&$ cites a firewalled Wired story by Vittoria Elliott: Elon "Musk's takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of -- and in at least one case, purportedly still in -- college. Most have connections to Musk, and at least two have connections to Musk's longtime associate Peter Thiel, a cofounder and chair of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy.... Wired has identified six young men -- all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24 ... -- who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with 'modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.' The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer. The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran."

Kipp Jones of Mediaite: "Sunday afternoon, [Elon] Musk -- presumably after reviewing Treasury Department records -- accused federal employees of 'breaking the law every hour of every day by approving payments that are fraudulent or do not match the funding laws passed by Congress.' MB: There is no reason whatever to take Musk's word for it. The most generous interpretation is that the Musk's Kidz Klub is misreading the data; otherwise, he's lying for nefarious purposes.

Pemy Levy of Mother Jones: "The power that comes with controlling US government payments is vast. How Musk and Trump might try to leverage that against political or legal opponents -- say, against states that file lawsuits they don;t like -- is sobering to consider. So far, the GOP-controlled Congress seems willing to let them do whatever they want." Levy notes that the little Muskovites may not have the power to stop Treasury payments yet, but she asserts, with evidence, that they could get it soon.

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "The top agent at the F.B.I.'s New York field office vowed in a defiant email to his staff to 'dig in' after the Trump administration targeted officials involved in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack -- and praised the bureau's interim leaders for defending its independence. 'Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy,' wrote James E. Dennehy, a veteran and highly respected agent who has run the largest and arguably the most important field office in the bureau since September.... He ... suggested he had no intention of stepping down.... [A] sense of dread was stoked by a remarkable questionnaire sent to bureau employees, asking them to describe what, if any, role they had in investigating and prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters. The form requires the employees to say if they collected evidence, provided support services, interviewed witnesses, executed search warrants or testified at trial -- basic activities of F.B.I. employees during the normal and lawful course of their duties. They have until 3 p.m. Monday to complete the forms."

Hamed Aleaziz & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has ended Temporary Protected Status, or T.P.S., for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the United States, leaving the population vulnerable to potential deportation in the coming months, according to government documents obtained by The New York Times. The move..., [Mr.] Trump's first to remove such protections in his second term, signals that he plans to continue a crackdown on the program that began in his first administration, when he sought to terminate the status for migrants from Sudan, El Salvador and Haiti, among others. He was stymied by federal courts that took issue with the way he undid the protections."

Marie: Hair-on-fire seems to be the style du jour, and I'm in very good company: ~~~

     ~~~ ⭐Historian Timothy Snyder, in a Substack essay, describes "the coup that is going on now: ... The oligarchs have no plan to govern. They will take what they can, and disable the rest. The destruction is the point. They don't want to control the existing order. They want disorder in which their relative power will grow.... Trump's tariffs (which are also likely illegal) are there to make us poor. Trump's attacks on America's closest friends, countries such as Canada and Denmark, are there to make enemies of countries where constitutionalism works and people are prosperous.... Deportations are a spectacle to turn Americans against one another, to make us afraid.... They also create busy-work for law enforcement, locating the 'criminals' in workplaces across the country, as the crime of the century takes place at the very center of power." Read on. Many thanks to Julie in Massachusetts for the link.

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Trump hit back at critics [of his tariffs] and argued the decision was necessary because of 'major' trade deficits with [Mexico, Canada & China]. 'The "Tariff Lobby," headed by the Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal, is working hard to justify Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA,' Trump posted from his Mar-a-Lago estate.... 'This will be the Golden Age of America!' Trump continued. 'Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!). But we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid. We are a country that is now being run with common sense -- and the results will be spectacular!!!' The Washington Post's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What Trump means by "common sense" is ignoring facts and/or expert analysis.

Ethan Singer of the New York Times: "More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon, a New York Times analysis has found, as federal agencies rush to heed ... [Donald] Trump's orders targeting diversity initiatives and 'gender ideology.' The purges have removed information about vaccines, veterans' care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics. Doctors, researchers and other professionals often rely on such government data and advisories. Some government agencies appear to have removed entire sections of their website.... Among the pages that have been taken down: More than 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including a thousand research articles filed under preventing chronic disease, S.T.D. treatment guidelines, information about Alzheimer's warning signs, overdose prevention training and vaccine guidelines for pregnant people.... More than 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau.... More than 1,000 pages from the Office of Justice Programs, including a feature on teenage dating violence...."

~~~~~~~~~~

⭐David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Saturday imposed tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, the nation's three largest trading partners, invoking emergency economic powers in a high-stakes bid to compel them to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs reaching the United States. The president signed three executive orders establishing the measures, the first official actions of his second-term trade war, according to a White House official who briefed reporters. They drew sharp replies from the leaders of Canada and Mexico, as well as immediate opposition from business and labor groups, which warned of profound upheaval throughout the economy. For the typical U.S. household, the tariffs will mean a loss of about $1,200 in annual purchasing power...." (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't believe for a minute Trump imposed the tariffs to force crackdowns on immigrants & drugs coming into the U.S. He did it because he's a stupid, mean, narcissist, and he doesn't give a flying fuck if he further straps families who can ill-afford to spend another $1,200 a month to purchase necessities. This is a shameful, petty, self-indulgent act. ~~~

     ~~~ Update 1. Paul Krugman: "My guess is that Trump is imposing steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico just to show that he can -- that it's essentially a dominance display. And the many people pointing out that it's a terrible idea probably only reinforced his determination to show that he's in charge and smarter than anyone else. [But why is Trump] letting China off easy? We know that Elon Musk has strong business reasons for wanting to treat China gently. Back in November Politico Europe wrote: '... China thinks it has an ace in its back pocket that could help keep Trump's more robust policies [against China] in check: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company depends on good ties with the Asian country.' It sure looks as if the Chinese judged that correctly, doesn't it?" Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Update 2. David Sanger of the New York Times has another theory: "For now, at least, the tariffs, in [Donald Trump's] view, are the point, a means of bolstering the nation's finances as he simultaneously seeks territorial expansion and strategic advantage over an increasingly assertive China. He said as much in his Inaugural Address, only 12 frenetic days earlier. 'Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries,' he said, 'we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.' He went on to describe his plan to establish an 'External Revenue Service,' and a few days ago mused to reporters that income taxes might wither away, as tariffs become the main sustenance for America's $6.8 trillion annual federal budget." ~~~

     ~~~ The Poor Get Poorer & the Rich Get Richer. Marie: Let's assume that Sanger's analysis is correct (and I don't disagree with it). But what he doesn't say is that a major effect of using tariffs to create a significant revenue stream will be to create an even more regressive tax system. Trump is already planning tax cuts for the rich. With tariffs as a major source of revenue, the poor & middle class will be paying more in taxes (i.e., tariffs) than will the rich because the poor & middle class spend a larger portion of their incomes on purchases of items whose costs will increase because of tariffs.

~~~ Danielle Kaye of the New York Times: "The three countries [-- Canada, Mexico & China --] account for more than a third of the products brought into the United States, supporting tens of millions of American jobs.... All goods imported from Canada and Mexico will be subject to a 25 percent tariff, except Canadian energy products, which will face a 10 percent tariff, according to the executive orders. The orders also placed a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods.... In the United States, the largest risks are to farming, fishing, metal and auto production.... Analysts at Goldman Sachs have said that if Mr. Trump proceeds with across-the-board tariffs, it would both raise prices in the United States and slow economic growth. Most economists expect that fresh trade barriers could lead to a temporary burst of higher inflation. The Canadian government has made plans to target orange juice from Florida, whiskey from Tennessee and peanut butter from Kentucky, while Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said her country is prepared to respond with retaliatory tariffs." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ David Garcia & Ana Martinez of Reuters: "Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Saturday ordered retaliatory tariffs in response to the U.S. decision to slap 25% tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico, as a trade war broke out between the two neighbors. In a lengthy post on X, Sheinbaum said her government sought dialogue rather than confrontation with its top trade partner to the north, but that Mexico had been forced to respond in kind.... In her post, Sheinbaum also rejected as 'slander' the White House's allegation that drug cartels have an alliance with the Mexican government, a point Trump's administration used to justify the tariffs.... Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on X that Trump's tariffs were a 'flagrant violation' of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement." ~~~

~~~ Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada laid out more than $100 billion in retaliatory tariffs against the United States late Saturday, in a forceful response to ... [Donald] Trump's decision to impose levies on a range of Canadian goods. But he made clear that Canada was doing so reluctantly. 'We don't want to be here,' Mr. Trudeau said in a somber televised address from Ottawa that evoked the deep bonds between the two neighbors and close trading partners. 'We didn't ask for this.' Mr. Trudeau spoke hours after President Trump hit Canada and Mexico with tariffs of 25 percent on all goods, with a partial carve out for Canadian energy and oil exports. Mr. Trudeau said that Canada would swiftly impose its own 'far-reaching' retaliatory tariffs of 25 percent on 155 billion Canadian dollars ($106 billion) worth of U.S. goods. Initial tariffs worth 30 billion Canadian dollars will start on Tuesday, when the U.S. tariffs go into effect, Mr. Trudeau said. That will be followed by tariffs on 125 billion Canadian dollars worth of goods in the next three weeks, a delay he said would allow Canadian businesses to prepare." ~~~

~~~ CBC News: British Columbia's provincial "Premier David Eby has announced immediate countermeasures in response to incoming U.S. tariffs, saying the province will take action to protect B.C. workers and businesses.... As an initial response, Eby said he has directed the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch to immediately stop purchasing American liquor from Republican-led 'red states' and remove the top-selling brands from public liquor store shelves."

More on Trump's Stupid Order to "Turn on the Spigot." Maegan Vazquez & Scott Dance of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released water from two reservoirs in the foothills of the southern Sierra Nevada to meet ... Donald Trump's recent directive to funnel more water to Southern California.... Trump ... had falsely blamed water shortages during the [Los Angeles wildfires] on California's water management policies.... Southern California's reservoirs are above historical levels, and experts said water released into the Central Valley would not reach Los Angeles.... Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) called the water releases 'uncoordinated and unwarranted,' writing on X that it's 'not being directed to LA where the fires are contained. And now, it won't be available when farmers need it in summer.'" ~~~

~~~ Oh, and here's another way the Trump/Musk administration plans to make wildfires more dangerous in California and around the nation: ~~~

     ~~~ Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: Resignation offers which the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, "sent without warning to most of the country's federal workers..., incited confusion and alarm for civil servants of various stripes, but it cut particularly deep for federally employed wildland firefighters.... Many were just beginning to recover after battling some of the most destructive fires in California history this month. Now, those firefighters who communities depend on to battle increasingly frequent extreme wildfires are questioning their jobs -- and their futures. Federal firefighting teams are already underpaid and suffering from attrition, firefighters and union leaders said. Shrinking those forces, they said, would hamper the country's ability to respond to another life-threatening blaze as climate change causes fire seasons to lengthen.... The federal government employs around 20,000 seasonal and full-time wildland firefighters...."

Andrew Duehren, et al., of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to five people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and [his] team ... a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending. The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk's lieutenants into the department's payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit. The system could give the Trump administration another mechanism to attempt to unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress, a push that has faced legal roadblocks." (Also linked yesterday.) An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This Friday-night heist is far more dangerous than the tariffs Trump just imposed. (1) Most voters probably will not even hear about this, or if they do, it won't register as nearly as important as the tariffs Trump just imposed. (2) If people ever get up-in-arms about this, it won't be till they miss their first Social Security check or can't get their EBT cards (food stamps). (3) The tariffs are monumentally stupid, but Trump can legally impose them. Giving non-government employees access to the nation's checkbook, with an eye toward tearing it up, is illegal and unconstitutional. (4) This is a revolutionary act, a piece of the (so far) bloodless coup in which Trump's buddies are taking over another branch of government. Oh, and don't think that the kleptocrats won't write themselves checks. They probably won't do it right away, but if they get comfy enough controlling the purse strings, they'll find a little somethin' somethin' in it for their troubles. ~~~

     ~~~ P.S. I know many of you think I must look pretty silly running around with my hair on fire. But Trump told us many of the terrible things he would do, and now he has the impulse and the means to do most of them. Remember that many a monstrous dictator took control of his country by legal means (Hitler) and with a great deal of public support (Mussolini). ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "As Josh Marshall said in this earlier post, this is almost certainly illegal and there needs to be immediate legal action to stop it. We have no idea who these people are, whether they are competent or if they have nefarious goals. It's literally just Musk's boys taking over the very closely held US payment system. I could not be more dangerous."

The Resistance Begins to Emerge. Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll on Friday refused a Justice Department order that he assist in the firing of agents involved in Jan. 6 riot cases, pushing back so forcefully that some FBI officials feared he would be dismissed, multiple current and former FBI officials told NBC News. The Justice Department ultimately did not dismiss Driscoll, the head of the bureau's Newark field office who is temporarily serving as its acting director. Kash Patel..., [Donald] Trump's pick for FBI director and a critic of the bureau's investigations of Trump and Jan. 6th rioters, will take over if he is confirmed by the Senate. During his confirmation hearing on Thursday, Patel testified under oath that no FBI officials would be retaliated against. 'All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution,' Patel told Senators."

Driscoll was told Thursday he had to turn over the names of the thousands of FBI employees who worked on January 6 investigation, but it is not clear he will do so. Instead, "In a message that circulated widely among bureau personnel, an FBI agent summarized what happened as: 'Bottom line -- DOJ came over and wanted to fire a bunch of J6 agents. Driscoll is an absolute stud. Held his ground and told WH proxy, DOJ, to F--- Off.'... Legal experts said that few, if any, of the firings carried out so far by the Trump administration have been legal under civil service laws because the employees were not afforded due process."

Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, was fired on Saturday, prematurely ending a five-year term that was scheduled to run through late 2026.... Mr. Chopra expected to be fired immediately after President Trump took office, but he improbably hung on for nearly two weeks, even as the president ousted scores of other agency leaders. He used that time to impose a $2 million fine on a money transmitter and release reports on auto lending costs, specialty credit reporting companies and rent payment data. When Congress created the consumer bureau in 2011 == to increase oversight of mortgage loans and other financial products in the aftermath of the Great Recession -- it included guardrails to protect the agency's independence and shield it from shifting political tides. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the president was free to fire the agency's director without cause, which cleared the way for the bureau's leadership to change with each presidential administration." MB: Once again: thanks, Supremes! (Also linked yesterday.)

Erica Green & Zach Montague of the New York Times: "The Education Department placed dozens of employees on administrative leave on Friday, citing guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, which had directed agencies to submit plans for shedding staff associated with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts by the end of the day. In letters obtained by The New York Times, the department notified affected employees that they would lose access to their email accounts, but would continue to receive pay for an indefinite period.... According to interviews with those placed on leave and people familiar with the notifications, the department appeared to have cast a wide net, suspending people whose job titles and official duties had no connection to D.E.I., and whose only apparent exposure to D.E.I. initiatives came in the form of trainings encouraged by their managers. One of the training workshops that employees speculated may have led to their being flagged took place more than nine years ago." MB: At least one of those placed on leave is a white man, but I'll betcha a lot of the dumpees are women and/or minorities. ~~~

Laura Meckler, et al., of the Washington Post: "The effort is not limited to the Education Department. In Trump's first two weeks in office, the drive to rid the federal government of anything associated with diversity or equity has ricocheted throughout federal agencies.... At the Energy Department, more than a dozen employees in one of the agency's regional 'culture' offices were put on administrative leave, but only three of them held DEI roles, according to three Energy Department staffers and personnel logs. And at the Office of Personnel Management, several employees who had previously taken part in DEI initiatives but who were not doing DEI work when Trump's executive order was issued were also put on leave.... Late Friday, newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the agency to stop commemorating cultural celebrations such as Black History Month. The message to staff was headlined: 'Identity Months Dead at DoD.' On Thursday, the FBI directed janitorial staff at Quantico to paint over a multicolored mural that once featured the words 'FAIRNESS,' 'LEADERSHIP,' 'INTEGRITY,' 'COMPASSION' and 'DIVERSITY.'" (Thanks to RAS for the illustration.) ~~~

Karoon Demirjian of the New York Times: "The website for the U.S. Agency for International Development went dark Saturday afternoon as lawmakers and aid workers, already reeling over the recent freezes to foreign assistance and the suspension of senior officials, braced for the possibility that the agency might be shut down. A slimmed-down page for U.S.A.I.D. appeared on the State Department's website Saturday afternoon, suggesting that the agency's activities -- which are currently severely limited -- had been brought under the State Department's umbrella.... Mr. Trump has made no secret of his disdain for the scope of American foreign aid, arguing that sending taxpayer dollars overseas runs counter to his America first agenda." Read on.

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to Central America on Saturday, kicking off his first official trip with a visit to Panama amid tensions over President Trump's threats to seize control of the Panama Canal. Mr. Rubio's plan to visit four Central American nations, along with the Dominican Republic, reflects the Trump administration's intense focus on halting illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as the influence migration will have on American diplomacy in the coming years. Mr. Rubio's other planned stops are El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica.... The trip's highlight is likely to be Mr. Rubio's visit to Panama, which will include a stop at the Panama Canal, State Department officials said. That sets up a potentially tense dynamic with Panamanian leaders, who say they are unwilling even to discuss transferring control of the canal." ~~~

     ~~~ John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Panama on Saturday with a lofty assignment: Retake the Panama Canal.... Trump hasn't equivocated -- 'we're taking it back,' he declared at his inaugural address -- and Rubio isn't giving the game away. 'The president's been pretty clear he wants to administer the canal again,' he told podcaster Megyn Kelly on Thursday.... Trump's refusal to rule out the use of military force to retake the canal has angered leaders in Latin America, wary of Washington's checkered history of military occupation and CIA overthrows in Central America and the Caribbean during the 20th century." MB: I would not call the imperialistic violation of our treaty with Panama "a lofty assignment."

Herb Scribner of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon said late Friday night that it plans to annually rotate news organizations into dedicated office spaces to make room for other outlets, replacing some legacy media. The memo sent Friday evening to Pentagon reporters, signed by [a] Pentagon senior communications official..., said that NBC News, the New York Times, NPR and Politico will cede their office space to the New York Post, Breitbart News, One America News and HuffPost. This is the first switch for what the Pentagon deemed the 'Annual Media Rotation Program,' which will swap news outlets from print, TV, radio and online news for other organizations that have not had the opportunity to report from the office space, according to the memo. The new guidance takes effect on Feb. 14.... Generally, all credentialed reporters can still work from the Pentagon, though they won"t have a specific desk to use....

"The biggest impact might be for NBC News, as the Pentagon has dedicated box areas for CNN, Fox News, ABC and NBC for live broadcasts. The decision to remove NBC comes after the outlet reported during Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing that his former Fox colleagues were concerned about his drinking and claims that his second wife feared for her safety."

Nazi Transportation Suck-up Board. David McAfee of the Raw Story: "The NTSB said over the weekend that it would only be announcing news about major aircraft accidents on one particular social media platform. 'For media covering the airplane crashes in Washington and Philadelphia -- all NTSB updates about news conferences or other investigative information will be posted to this X account,' the agency wrote. 'We will not be distributing information via email.'... Atlanta News First investigator Brendan Keefe said, 'The NTSB is requiring a free press to join a private website run by a presidential appointee in order to access public information about the worst US air disaster in a generation.'... A popular lawyer known as southpaw said, 'This amounts to a federal subsidy of this platform -- which is owned by the president's biggest donor, who as it happens has made it into a gathering place for Nazis.'... Brian Beutler ... [writes,] 'An aggressive litigant can get this enjoined Monday,' he wrote on Saturday. 'From there, make it hurt; make the Supreme Court say Republican presidents can privatize government communication on the platforms of their Nazi-aligned donors.'" Thanks to RAS for the link.

Heather Cox Richardson: Trump's supporters come from "three very different factions whose only shared ideology was a determination to destroy the federal government. Now we are watching them do it." MB: This is a dizzying reminder of what we've learned in the last two weeks, but it's hard not to conclude that the administrations' goals is the destruction of a federal government that functions within the law for the good of the American people.

Reid Epstein & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "The Democratic National Committee on Saturday elected Ken Martin as its chairman, tapping a low-profile political insider from Minnesota to guide the party forward after its crushing defeats last fall." MB: I hope he proves me wrong, but I have a sense this guy doesn't have a clue. He seems to be operating out of the same playbook that Democrats have relied on since the New Deal.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel's Wars. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed for Washington early Sunday to meet with ... Donald Trump, in what will be the U.S. leader's first meeting with a foreign head of state since returning to the White House last month.... The Israeli army expanded an already major operation in the occupied West Bank, it said on Sunday, adding that it entered two new villages Sunday and killed 'a number of terrorists' in three airstrikes the previous day.... The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened for the first time in eight months on Saturday, allowing for the medical evacuation of 34 children and three adults.... Syria's interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, made his first trip abroad on Sunday, traveling to Saudi Arabia alongside his government's foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani. The visit reinforces a major diplomatic shift for Syria, a country that until Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December, held Iran as its main regional ally."

News Lede

New York Times: "American Airlines Flight 5342, a regional jet en route from Wichita, Kan., was zooming down and about to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington on Wednesday night, when it made a last-minute turn upward. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board appeared unsure if that meant that the pilots were alerted to something wrong in the plane's final descent. But the sudden change in trajectory was not enough to avoid colliding with a military helicopter that was flying higher than it was supposed to be."

The Conversation -- February 1, 2025

⭐David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Saturday imposed tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, the nation's three largest trading partners, invoking emergency economic powers in a high-stakes bid to compel them to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs reaching the United States. The president signed three executive orders establishing the measures, the first official actions of his second-term trade war, according to a White House official who briefed reporters. They drew sharp replies from the leaders of Canada and Mexico, as well as immediate opposition from business and labor groups, which warned of profound upheaval throughout the economy. For the typical U.S. household, the tariffs will mean a loss of about $1,200 in annual purchasing power...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't believe for a minute Trump imposed the tariffs to force crackdowns on immigrants & drugs coming into the U.S. He did it because he's a stupid, mean, narcissist, and he doesn't give a flying fuck if he further straps families who can ill-afford to spend another $1,200 a month to purchase necessities. This is a shameful, petty, self-indulgent act. ~~~

~~~ Danielle Kaye of the New York Times: "The three countries [-- Canada, Mexico & China --] account for more than a third of the products brought into the United States, supporting tens of millions of American jobs.... All goods imported from Canada and Mexico will be subject to a 25 percent tariff, except Canadian energy products, which will face a 10 percent tariff, according to the executive orders. The orders also placed a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods.... In the United States, the largest risks are to farming, fishing, metal and auto production.... Analysts at Goldman Sachs have said that if Mr. Trump proceeds with across-the-board tariffs, it would both raise prices in the United States and slow economic growth. Most economists expect that fresh trade barriers could lead to a temporary burst of higher inflation. The Canadian government has made plans to target orange juice from Florida, whiskey from Tennessee and peanut butter from Kentucky, while Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said her country is prepared to respond with retaliatory tariffs."

Andrew Duehren, et al., of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to five people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and [his] team ... a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending. The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk's lieutenants into the department's payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit. The system could give the Trump administration another mechanism to attempt to unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress, a push that has faced legal roadblocks." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This Friday-night heist is far more dangerous than the tariffs Trump just imposed. (1) Most voters probably will not even hear about this, or if they do, it won't register as nearly as important as the tariffs Trump just imposed. (2) If people ever get up-in-arms about this, it won't be till they miss their first Social Security check or can't get their EBT cards (food stamps). (3) The tariffs are monumentally stupid, but Trump can legally impose them. Giving non-government employees access to the nation's checkbook, with an eye toward tearing it up, is illegal and unconstitutional. (4) This is a revolutionary act, a piece of the (so far) bloodless coup in which Trump's buddies are taking over another branch of government. Oh, and don't think that the kleptocrats won't write themselves checks. They probably won't do it right away, but if they get comfy enough controlling the purse strings, they'll find a little somethin' somethin' in it for their troubles. ~~~

     ~~~ P.S. I know many of you think I must look pretty silly running around with my hair on fire. But Trump told us many of the terrible things he would do, and now he has the impulse and the means to do most of them. Remember that many a monstrous dictator took control of his country by legal means (Hitler) and with a great deal of public support (Mussolini).

Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, was fired on Saturday, prematurely ending a five-year term that was scheduled to run through late 2026.... Mr. Chopra expected to be fired immediately after President Trump took office, but he improbably hung on for nearly two weeks, even as the president ousted scores of other agency leaders. He used that time to impose a $2 million fine on a money transmitter and release reports on auto lending costs, specialty credit reporting companies and rent payment data. When Congress created the consumer bureau in 2011 -- to increase oversight of mortgage loans and other financial products in the aftermath of the Great Recession -- it included guardrails to protect the agency's independence and shield it from shifting political tides. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the president was free to fire the agency's director without cause, which cleared the way for the bureau's leadership to change with each presidential administration." MB: Once again: thanks, Supremes!

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: What we are experiencing is the third American revolution. The first was a radical left-wing war against a government owned & operated by Great Britain. It succeeded. The second was a radical right-wing war against the government in Washington, D.C. It failed in fact but not in the imaginations of the losers and their progeny. The third is a right-wing war in the image of the second. So far, this third war is a bloodless coup. If it succeeds, forget the Gulf of America. It will henceforth be the Trump Ocean. If Greenland falls to us, it will cease to be Greenland. The Greenlanders, like the rest of us, will be living in Trumpland.

The Times article that follows paints a picture of where we seem to stand now. Articles published yesterday, linked below the NYT story, get us there.

⭐Adam Goodman, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration plans to scrutinize thousands of F.B.I. agents involved in Jan. 6 investigations, setting the stage for a possible purge that goes far beyond the bureau's leaders to target rank-and-file agents, according to internal documents and people familiar with the matter. The proposal came on a day that more than a dozen prosecutors at the U.S. attorney's office in Washington who had worked on cases involving the Jan. 6 riot were told that they were being terminated. The moves were a powerful indication that Mr. Trump has few qualms deploying the colossal might of federal law enforcement to punish perceived political enemies, even as his cabinet nominees offered sober assurances they would abide by the rule of law. Forcing out both agents and prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases would amount to a wide-scale assault on the Justice Department. On Friday, interim leaders at the department instructed the F.B.I. to notify more than a half-dozen high-ranking career officials that they faced termination, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The New York Times."

Donald Trump Is All Surprised That This Happened. Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "Trump administration officials have forced out all six of the FBI's most senior executives and multiple heads of FBI field offices across the country, current and former FBI officials told NBC News. They included the high-profile leader of the Washington, D.C., field office, which was involved in the prosecutions of ... Donald Trump. The Justice Department also fired multiple federal prosecutors who conducted criminal investigations of Jan. 6 rioters, sources said. A congressional aide said the number of prosecutors impacted is roughly two dozen. And in a memo to the FBI workforce sent out Friday night, the bureau's acting director, Brian J. Driscoll, Jr., informed employees that the acting Deputy Attorney General asked him to provide a list of all FBI employees who worked on January 6 cases for 'a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.' 'We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,' Driscoll wrote. 'I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director Kissane.'

"Asked by a reporter about the removals on Friday afternoon, Trump said he was not aware of them. 'No, but we have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody has ever seen before,' Trump said. 'They came after a lot of people like me, but they came after a lot of people. No, I wasn't involved in that. I'll have to see what is exactly going on after this is finished.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Evan Perez & Josh Campbell of CNN: "The Trump administration is set to expand a purge of career law enforcement officials, with dozens of FBI agents who worked on January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack and Trump-related investigations as well as some supervisors being evaluated for possible removal as soon as the end of Friday, according to people briefed on the matter. The changes highlight how the new administration has moved quickly to deliver on ... Donald Trump's vow to strike back at the Justice Department and FBI that he claims have been weaponized against him. Trump has falsely accused agents of abuse in their court-ordered search of his Mar-a-Lago home and of their treatment of Capitol rioters. Interim leaders at the Justice Department have spent the past week drawing up lists of people whose work at the bureau has earned disfavor with Trump for a variety of reasons. Agent and analysts have been warned by FBI leadership that they may be asked to resign or face termination." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Jeremy Roebuck, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's administration has launched a sweeping effort to potentially fire a large number of FBI agents across the country who worked on investigations targeting the president and his supporters, three people familiar with the plan said Friday.... Officials are working to identify potentially hundreds for possible termination, said the people.... Of specific interest in their review were agents who worked on special counsel Jack Smith's investigations into Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents.... One person said agents involved in building cases against rioters in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol also were being considered for termination.

"A former law enforcement official familiar with the situation said FBI employees at the bureau's downtown Washington headquarters have been asked to turn over internal files of the election-interference and Mar-a-Lago documents investigations. The Trump administration is reviewing those files for the names of FBI case agents and supervisors who were involved, to make lists of personnel they plan to fire, this person said. The FBI's acting director, Brian Driscoll, a veteran agent who Trump appointed to run the bureau until a permanent director is confirmed, refused to endorse the effort...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Spencer Hsu & Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "Interim D.C. U.S. attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., on Friday dismissed about 30 federal prosecutors who have worked on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot cases over the past four years, undertaking a housecleaning of the top prosecutor's office in Washington, while preparing to extend the office's scrutiny to top Democratic leaders and former Justice Department officials, people close to Martin said.... In his first 11 days in office, Martin, 54, has moved quickly to align the office with ... Donald Trump's political views -- and drawn significant criticism in the process. Since being appointed on Jan. 20, Martin has ordered top supervisors in the office to investigate their colleagues' handling of the Capitol riot prosecutions in the wake of Trump's mass pardons and threatened subordinates who disclose or criticize his actions. And he ... [sent] what he called a 'letter of inquiry' to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) about his quickly walked-back statement in a March 2020 rally that two of Trump's recently nominated Supreme Court justices, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh, would 'pay the price' for a vote against abortion rights." Politico's story is here.

[Trump] is the executive of the executive branch, and, therefore, he has the power to fire anyone within the executive branch that he wishes to. -- Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ~~~

~~~ The Lord High Executioner. Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "Less than a fortnight in office..., Donald Trump['s] roiling actions have generated workplace fear, confusion and anger -- never good traits for any organization. The breathtaking scope and sudden implementation of his moves, some with dubious legality, stunned workers and citizens alike, as Trump tries to significantly and controversially expand the powers of the presidency.... His administration's retaliation for supposed wrongs against Trump is going well beyond officials with whom he has a particular beef -- fired Justice Department lawyers, for example -- and includes civil servants who are baffled by their looming ousters.... Labor organizations, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) have filed lawsuits challenging what AFGE called Trump's 'efforts to politicize the civil service through illegal executive orders.'"

Marie: So what could Donald Trump do to mess up your day today? Chances are, you will not immediately or directly affected by Trump's dismantling of the Department of Justice. There is a higher likelihood that some of his other stunts o' the week (like trying to access [for the purpose of stopping] Social Security checks, IRS refunds, etc.) will harm or inconvenience you. But there's nearly a 100 percent chance that you and I will feel this one: ~~~

~~~ David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Friday dramatically expanded his global trade war, confirming that he will impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China on Saturday and announcing plans for additional import taxes on European goods, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, steel, aluminum, copper, and oil and gas. The comprehensive roster of products that may soon become noticeably more expensive for American consumers and businesses runs from industrial metals and commodities to wine, beer, lumber and medicine.... If implemented as permanent measures, [Trump's tariffs] would dramatically reshape U.S. commercial ties with other countries and hamstring the global economy.... Trump's sole concession to potential sticker shock from his plans for higher import taxes was to say that he would 'probably' set the tariff on Canadian oil imports at 10 percent rather than 25 percent." The AP's report is here. MB: Donald Trump wants everyone here and around the world to know that he has the power to diminish our lives, even if only by a little bit. For starters.

Marie: It turns out Trump eventually did (sort of) cause the U.S. military to invade California to turn on the water spigot -- although he had not done so when he first claimed he did, and Army Corps of Engineers officials nearly flooded two river basins when they did act on his careless order: ~~~

     ~~~ Camille Von Kaenel & Annie Snyder of Politico: "... Donald Trump declared victory on Friday in his long-running water war with California, boasting he sent billions of gallons south -- but local officials say they narrowly prevented him from possibly flooding farms. 'Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago -- There would have been no fire!' he said in a post on his social media site. Local officials had to talk the Army Corps of Engineers down after it abruptly alerted them Thursday afternoon it was about to increase flows from two reservoirs to maximum capacity -- a move the agency said was in response to Trump directing the federal government to 'maximize' water supplies. Before the Corps ratcheted down its plan, local authorities scrambled to move equipment and warn farms about possible flooding, said Victor Hernandez, who oversees water management on one of the rivers.... A former senior [U.S.] Bureau of Reclamation official ... [said,] 'Something really bad could happen because of their nonsensical approach.'"

Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to keep taxpayer dollars flowing to 22 Democratic-leaning states for all congressionally approved government programs, including those that could run afoul of ... [Donald] Trump's ideological tests. The decision, signed by Judge John J. McConnell Jr., is a temporary but significant victory for the Democratic attorneys general from those states and the District of Columbia, who sued the administration in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The order applies only to the states that filed the lawsuit. It requires the administration not to 'pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate' taxpayer money already allocated by Congress. The 13-page order, for which Judge McConnell did not specify an expiration date, adds an obstacle to Mr. Trump's plans to aggressively reshape the government around his own agenda.... [The order] may create a divide between Democratic states that will continue to have funds flowing and Republican states that will still face uncertainty. "The linked order comes via the court system, so is not subscriber-firewalled. (Also linked yesterday.) Politico's story is here.

Roni Rabin & Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "Federal and state health officials and staff members scrambled on Friday to comply with a 5 p.m. deadline by the Trump administration to terminate any programs that promote 'gender ideology,' and to withdraw documents and any other media that may do so. Federal workers had already been ordered to halt diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, to scrub public references to those efforts and to place employees involved in them on administrative leave.... The directives 'risk dismantling programs that have been built up over decades to serve the needs of Americans,' said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We already knew how cruel, offensive, counterproductive and confusing the "new rules" were, but as you read through this article, you'll also see how downright stupid and nonsensical they are.

A Victim of Trump's Bigotry Speaks Out. Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "Jo Ellis, a helicopter pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard, was falsely identified as the captain of the crashed Black Hawk helicopter in thousands of social media posts this week. The flurry of falsehoods were so extreme that Ms. Ellis, who is transgender, posted a 'proof of life' video to Facebook clarifying that she is alive and had not flown the crashed chopper. The falsehoods, which tried to tie Ms. Ellis's transgender identity to the tragedy, spread online shortly after President Trump and his allies attempted to tie the crash in Washington, D.C., to so-called 'D.E.I. programs,' an array of initiatives meant to boost diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. There is no evidence that such programs played any role in the crash.... Ms. Ellis said in a video posted to her Facebook account[,] 'It is insulting to the families to try to tie this to some sort of political agenda. They don't deserve that. I don't deserve this.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "In a mass email sent to federal employees just before 8:30 p.m. -- almost exactly 24 hours after an air crash in Washington that killed 67 people -- the Office of Personnel Management encouraged F.A.A. workers, including air traffic controllers, to look for new jobs outside of government, where they might have an opportunity to be more productive. 'We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so,' stated the email, which was reviewed by The New York Times. 'The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector.' The message, in the form of 'F.A.Q.s' -- or Frequently Asked Questions -- suggested that if the employees agreed to depart, they could take a second job or travel to their 'dream destination' while still on the public payroll for months before leaving permanently. But employees have been informed over the years that it is illegal for them to take a second job while working for the federal government, raising questions about whether the government can deliver on that offer." (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐Tim Reid of Reuters: "Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials. Since taking office 11 days ago..., Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.... The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.... Officials affected by the move can still log on and access functions such as email but can no longer see the massive datasets that cover every facet of the federal workforce." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is extraordinary. I doubt the Muskovites have security clearances or legal access to these systems that contain the personal information of millions of federal workers. Still, they have managed to goose-step their way into federal offices & forced authorized personnel away from their desks and the data they need to do their jobs. ~~~

~~~ Mike Masnick of TechDirt: "... last fall, I highlighted two devastating patterns in Musk's management: his authoritarian impulse to (sometimes literally demolish systems without understanding them, and his tendency to replace existing, nuanced solutions with far worse alternatives (even when those older systems probably did require some level of reform). Those same patterns are now threatening the federal government's basic functions.... A private citizen with zero Constitutional authority is effectively seizing control of critical government functions. The Constitution explicitly requires Senate confirmation for anyone wielding significant federal power -- a requirement Musk has simply ignored as he installs his loyalists throughout the government while demanding access to basically all of the levers of power, and pushing out anyone who stands in his way.... For all of Musk and fans whining about the hiring of 'unqualified' people (which has been very clearly coded to mean non-white, non-male, non-cisgender), the fact that he's hired a kid whose experience is 'camp counselor into a high-level position is fucking insane. But this isn't just about personnel changes. It's about systematically dismantling government institutions from the inside out." (MB: This camp counselor, though probably just barely of legal age, is so young that Zoe Schiffer of Wired did not feel comfortable revealing his name.) Thanks to safari for the link. See also his commentary, republished in today's thread. ~~~

~~~ Zoe Schiffer of Wired: "Elon Musk's minions -- from trusted sidekicks to random college students and former Musk company interns -- have taken over the General Services Administration, a critical government agency that manages federal offices and technology. Already, the team is attempting to use White House security credentials to gain unusual access to GSA tech, deploying a suite of new AI software, and recreating the office in X's image, according to leaked documents obtained by Wired. Some of the same people who helped Musk take over Twitter more than two years ago are now registered as official GSA employees." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Knowing what I know now, I would lock these SOBs out of my office if I had a government job. This is an insurrection.

It's alarming that Elon Musk is attempting to gain access to the Federal Government's critical payment system, which is responsible for delivering Social Security checks, tax refunds, and Medicare benefits to Americans across the country. It is equally alarming that Musk and the Trump Administration drove out the most senior career official at Treasury as the agency is already taking extraordinary measures to avoid a US default. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in a statement ~~~

~~~ Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Through a series of specific requests, Trump's landing team attempted to lift the hood on the [Treasury D]epartment's Bureau of the Fiscal Service, an arcane branch that distributes nearly 90 percent of all federal payments, including Social Security benefits, tax refunds and payments to federal workers and contractors. That adds up to a billion annual transactions totaling more than $5 trillion.... The top civil servant at the Treasury Department, David Lebryk, is leaving unexpectedly after Trump-affiliated officials expressed interest in stopping certain payments made by the federal government, according to three people familiar with the situation.... Trump-affiliated employees had asked about Treasury's ability to stop payments. But Lebryk's pushback was, 'We don't do that,'... 'They seem to want Treasury to be the chokepoint on payments, and that's unprecedented,' [a] person [with knowledge] added, emphasizing that it is not the bureau's role to decide which payments to make -- it is 'just to make the f-ing payments.'... Lebryk's exit was first reported by the Washington Post [and linked here], but the full scale of the tension inside the Treasury Department has not been previously reported."

Jennifer Jacobs, et al., of CBS News: "The Trump administration plans to scrub some federal government websites in order to remove content contrary to the president's thinking, administration officials told CBS News, and word spread quickly throughout Washington about actions that might be taken to alter the websites.... Guidance had been sent to agencies instructing them to remove 'gender ideology'-related content from their websites by 5 p.m. Friday. However, the administration doesn't plan to shut down websites that have not complied, said McLaurine Pinover, communications director for the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM.... [Donald] Trump, asked by reporters in the Oval Office Friday if websites would be shut down to remove diversity-related content, replied, 'If they want to scrub the websites, that's OK with me.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Dangerous, Hateful & Absurd. Will Stone & Selena Simmons-Duffin of NPR: "At the direction of the Trump administration, the federal Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies are purging its websites of information and data on a broad array of topics -- from adolescent health to LGBTQ+ rights to HIV. Several webpages from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with references to LGBTQ+ health were no longer available. A page from the HHS Office for Civil Rights outlining the rights of LGBTQ+ people in health care settings was also gone as of Friday. The website of the National Institutes of Health's Office for Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office disappeared. (Most of these pages could still be viewed through the Internet Archive.)" (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's story is here.

Stupid. Zack Colman & Marcia Brown of Politico: "Agriculture Department employees have been ordered to delete landing pages discussing climate change across agency websites and document climate change references for further review, according to an internal email obtained by Politico. The directive from USDA's office of communications ... could affect information across dozens of programs including climate-smart agriculture initiatives, USDA climate hubs and Forest Service information regarding wildfires, the frequency and severity of which scientists have linked to hotter, drier conditions fueled by climate change. And it is reminiscent of moves made during the first Trump administration to remove references to climate change from federal government websites." (Also linked yesterday.)

Stupid & Childish. Selina Wang, et al., of ABC News: "Employees at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News that cited two executive orders signed by ... Donald Trump on his first day in office seeking to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government. 'Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5.p.m. ET on Friday,' according to one such message sent Friday morning to CDC staff. Federal employees with the Department of Transportation received a similar directive on Thursday, the same day the department was managing the fallout from the D.C. plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.... Employees at the Department of Energy who received a similar notice Thursday were told this was to meet requirements in Trump's executive order calling for the removal of DEI 'language in Federal discourse, communications and publications.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

"Ethics," Trump-Style. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: The Trump administration has "released letters that lay out negotiated agreements between the members of the new administration and federal ethics officials. These letters, and associated financial disclosures, illustrate the extraordinary wealth of Mr. Trump's cabinet picks, as well as the uncharacteristically large list of potential conflicts of interest with which they enter the government.... To outside ethics lawyers, this is a minefield of potential problems, and reason to be apprehensive, given that during Mr. Trump's first term, several of his cabinet members failed to honor ethics promises they made.... [Mr.] Trump, as well, has already made clear that he sees nothing wrong with taking official government acts that could benefit his family's finances, such as appointing a crypto-friendly lawyer to oversee the Securities and Exchange Commission, just as his sons helped start two different cryptocurrency businesses."

Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "Venezuela released six detained Americans Friday after Richard Grenell..., Donald Trump's special missions envoy, traveled to Caracas to meet with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Grenell's trip was believed to be the first direct meeting between a U.S. official and the autocrat since 2022.... The names of the people freed Friday were not publicized." MB: Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but this seems like a good thing the Trump administration did.

What It Cost Elon to Buy Stupid Hitler. Trisha Thadani, et al., of the Washington Post: "Billionaire Elon Musk spent at least $288 million to help elect ... Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, according to a Washington Post analysis of new Federal Election Commission filings that offered an end-of-year snapshot of what was spent during the 2024 election cycle.... The staggering 2024 political spending by Musk and the extent of his influence over Trump, as well as the levers of the federal government, cap a remarkable transformation for the richest man in the world, who had only dabbled in politics before being welcomed into Trump's inner orbit last year."

Andy Borowitz's Borowitz Report (now on Substack): "Amid the chaos of his first days in office, on Thursday Donald J. Trump accidentally signed an executive order deporting himself to Panama. Elon Musk reassured reporters that Trump's imminent departure to the Central American nation would have 'no effect whatsoever' on the running of the White House, adding, 'I got this.' But news of Trump's deportation drew an angry response from Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino, who accused the U.S. of 'trying to offload felons to our shores.'" Thanks to a friend for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As is often the case, Borowitz's satirical "report" gets closer to the truth than we might think. According to Rachel Maddow, the Trump goons meant to make the FBI's current acting director Brian Driscoll the deputy acting director, and they meant to make the current acting deputy director Robert Kissane the acting director. But they screwed up and accidentally switched their names. According to the Times lead article on the DOJ debacle, linked above, "Instead of correcting the error, officials kept it in the hope that a new director would be quickly confirmed, The Wall Street Journal earlier reported." So is it possible that the worst president* in U.S. history could mistakenly deport himself? Sure. What is happening is horrible. But "Springtime for Stupid Hitler" is bound to have its humorous moments, too.

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Louisiana/New York. Sara Cline & Geoff Mulvihill of the AP: "An arrest warrant has been issued for a New York doctor indicted on Friday by a Louisiana grand jury for allegedly prescribing abortion pills online to a pregnant minor in the Deep South state, which has one of the strictest near-total abortion bans in the country. Grand jurors at the District Court for the Parish of West Baton Rouge unanimously issued an indictment against Dr. Margaret Carpenter; her company, Nightingale Medical, PC; and the minor's mother. All three were charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs, a felony. In addition to Carpenter, an arrest warrant was issued for the mother, who has not been publicly identified to protect the identity of the minor. District Attorney Tony Clayton told The Associated Press that the mother turned herself in to police on Friday.... New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a video posted on social media, 'I will never, under any circumstances, turn this doctor over to the state of Louisiana under any extradition requests,' signaling a potential legal battle between the states." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I urge Dr. Carpenter to cancel her plans to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras next month

New Jersey. Annals of Journalism, Ctd. An Obituary. Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "In its heyday, The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's longtime paper of record, boasted the nation's largest State House bureau, an enviable circulation and enough editorial clout to alter the trajectory of the region's defining infrastructure projects and environmental preservation efforts.... On Sunday, The Ledger's nearly century-long run as New Jersey's dominant newspaper will come to an end when it prints its final edition and shifts to an online-only format. Its editorial board will vanish, as will its clippable sports photos and pages of printed obituaries. Its sister publication, The Jersey Journal, one of the earliest holdings in the Newhouse media family's now-vast empire, will cease to exist in print or online, leaving Hudson County, N.J. -- a hotbed for political corruption -- without a daily newspaper. Three other affiliated papers, The Times of Trenton, The South Jersey Times and The Hunterdon County Democrat, will stop printing and offer only digital news."

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Israel's Wars. The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here: "Hamas released three more hostages and Israel freed a group of Palestinian prisoners on Saturday as part of an ongoing cease-fire deal, in a quick process that was a stark contrast to a chaotic and drawn-out transfer earlier this week.... Israel was releasing about 180 Palestinians from custody, according to the Palestinian prisoners' commission.... The exchange was the fourth in a multiphase cease-fire deal that Israel and Hamas agreed to last month."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Air traffic controllers twice alerted the crew of a U.S. Army helicopter to the presence of an inbound American Airlines jet, with the first warning issued two minutes before the aircraft collided Wednesday night near Reagan National Airport, radio transmissions show. While the quality makes it difficult to hear the audio recordings, aviation experts who reviewed the communications for The Washington Post said that a member of the Black Hawk helicopter crew responded each time by saying that he could see the plane and requested 'visual separation,' meaning the helicopter crew would maintain a safe distance. Each time, the request was approved. At about 8:48 p.m., roughly 12 seconds after the second alert from the control tower, the aircraft collided several hundred feet above the Potomac River....

"The radio transmissions indicate that the helicopter had more than enough time to take action to avoid the plane, according to three aviation experts. That the helicopter crew said it would do so but did not, experts told The Post, suggests that the crew may have seen something else -- such as another aircraft in the area -- and not the American Airlines flight flagged twice by the air traffic controller."