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11:15 AM ET, February 17, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Jacob Bogage / Washington Post:
Musk's DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS  —  The unusual request would put sensitive data about millions of American taxpayers in the hands of Trump political appointees.  —  Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily-guarded Internal Revenue Service system …
RELATED:
Politico:
‘Five alarm warning’: Possible DOGE access to private taxpayer data sparks outcry  —  The Elon Musk-run effort wants to study a system that includes tax returns, Social Security numbers and other information.  —  Democrats and tax experts are sounding alarms about a plan by Elon Musk's DOGE team …
NBC News:
DOGE-affiliated employee has accessed IRS system with sensitive taxpayer information  —  The Integrated Data Retrieval System allows IRS employees to access taxpayer information.  —  WASHINGTON — An Internal Revenue Service employee who is affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency …
Discussion: Bloomberg and The Japan Times
New York Times:
Musk Team Seeks Access to I.R.S. System With Taxpayers' Records  —  A White House spokesman said that the initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency needed to review data to fix waste within the agency.  —  The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to give a team member working …
Discussion: The Guardian
Associated Press:
Elon Musk's DOGE asks for access to IRS taxpayer data, sources say
Discussion: Washington Examiner
Mother Jones:   DOGE Worker Says He Was Radicalized by Reading Writer Who Later Denied Holocaust
Tara Copp / Associated Press:
Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash  —  The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision …
RELATED:
Pete Muntean / CNN:
Hundreds of FAA probationary workers fired by Trump administration, union says  —  The Trump administration has started firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration probationary employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, according to their union.
Discussion: MeidasTouch News and Forbes
Paul Krugman:
Our Government Is Experiencing a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly  —  Musk is moving fast and breaking important things  —  Last month SpaceX carried out a test launch of its in-development Starship rocket.  Liftoff was achieved, but as the company later announced, “Starship experienced …
Lauren Irwin / The Hill:   FAA firings begin weeks after deadly crash near DC
Financial Times:
Trump administration pressures Romania to lift restrictions on Tate brothers  —  Tristan and Andrew Tate have been charged with sexual misconduct, organised crime and money laundering  —  The Trump administration has pressured Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions …
Discussion: Raw Story
Eliza Collins / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Voters Splinter Over His Rapid Shake-Up of Washington  —  Some core supporters love his no-holds-barred approach, but several swing voters are taken aback at his early moves
Discussion: Fox News and Raw Story
RELATED:
CBS News:   A legal look at Trump's executive sprint
NBC News:
CDC ‘disease detectors’ among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts  —  Administration officials last week informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce as it targeted federal probationary employees.  —  The Trump administration on Saturday terminated hundreds …
Discussion: Forbes, The Independent and Daily Mail
RELATED:
Politico:
Mass firings continue across nation's health agencies
Discussion: CNBC and Boston Herald
David Strom / HotAir:
Insane: Margaret Brennan Says Free Speech Caused Holocaust  —  Did you know that the Nazis were free speech warriors, just like JD Vance and Elon Musk?  —  I didn't, but CBS' Margaret Brennan set me and Marco Rubio straight on this as she criticized JD Vance's speech in Munich.
RELATED:
Gideon Rachman / Financial Times:
Vance's real warning to Europe  —  Europeans need to reduce their dangerous dependence on an adversarial America  —  When JD Vance took the stage at the Munich Security Conference last week, he issued a stern warning.  The US vice-president told the assembled politicians and diplomats …
Discussion: Asia Times
Lauren Irwin / The Hill:
Rubio spars with Brennan over Vance's Munich speech
Matt Binder / disruptionist:
Elon Musk's X blocks links to Signal, the encrypted messaging service  —  Signal has been a primary method of communication for federal workers looking to blow the whistle on DOGE.  —  Elon Musk's social media platform, X, is currently banning links to “Signal.me,” a URL used by the encrypted messaging service Signal.
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order  —  The Washington Post this week backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.  —  The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement …
Nahal Toosi / Politico:
The Marco Rubio guide to survival is not working well  —  The secretary of State is taking positions that were once anathema and sounding very Trumpy online.  —  It is becoming increasingly clear that Marco Rubio is secretary of State in name only.  —  Since taking over Foggy Bottom …
Sarah Fortinsky / The Hill:
Conservative Party leader in Canada pledges to respond forcefully to Trump tariffs  —  Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada's Conservative Party, pledged on Saturday to respond forcefully to tariffs imposed by President Trump that harm the Canadian people or their economy.
RELATED:
Business Insider:
A group fighting the fentanyl crisis says Trump's tariffs could make the problem worse
Thomas Chatterton Williams / The Atlantic:
How the Woke Right Replaced the Woke Left  —  The hypocrisy of Trump's language wars  —  One of the defining features of the social-justice orthodoxy that swept through American culture between roughly the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 to Hamas's assault on Israel in 2023 was the policing of language.
Lisa Needham / Public Notice:
Trump has already weaponized the Department of Education  —  He vowed to kill it.  What he's doing to it instead is even worse. … 🤔 📚 🎒  —  During the 2024 election, Donald Trump made no secret of his plan to close the Department of Education (DOE).
Discussion: Washington Post and Breitbart
Cheyanne M. Daniels / The Hill:
NAACP spending guide urges Black Americans to avoid companies that dumped DEI  —  The NAACP is urging Black Americans to refrain from shopping at retailers that have stepped back from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.  —  The nation's oldest civil rights organization released …
J.D. Wolf / MeidasTouch News:
Trump Posted 14 Times About His Daytona 500 Trip, Nothing About Multi-State Flooding  —  An indifferent Trump was chauffeured around the racetrack as Kentucky mourned 8 deaths including a mom and her 7 year old child  —  On Saturday, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social:
Tom Hals / Reuters:
Judge calls rare hearing on a holiday in case against Musk's DOGE  —  A U.S. judge has scheduled a rare holiday court hearing on Monday, in a case brought by Democratic state attorneys general seeking to protect major federal agencies from Elon Musk's government cost-cutting team known as DOGE.
Luke Broadwater / New York Times:
Trump Targets a Growing List of Those He Sees as Disloyal … “It is more than obvious that Trump is fulfilling the promises that he made and campaigned on that he would retaliate against those who did him wrong,” said the lawyer Mark Zaid.Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Discussion: Raw Story
Steve Vladeck / One First:
125. The Court's First Trump II Case Won't Be a Bellwether  —  The challenge to Trump's removal of the head of the Office of Special Counsel raises unique procedural and substantive issues likely to prevent it from serving as a referendum—in either direction.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Popular Information:
In botched DEI purge, OSHA trashes workplace safety guidelines
Jill Colvin / Associated Press:
Mike Pence emerges as one of the few Republicans willing to challenge Trump 2.0
Washington Post:
Under Trump, CIA plots bigger role in drug cartel fight
New York Times:
Crypto Gamblers, Tech Oligarchs, Wall Street Opportunists. What Could Go Wrong?
Lisa Rein / Washington Post:
As Musk reshapes the government, some ask: Where are the guardrails?
Discussion: Nextgov/FCW
Nathaniel Weixel / The Hill:
Five pressing questions as RFK Jr. takes HHS reins
Jack Blanchard / Politico:
Playbook: Europe's split-screen moment
 Earlier Items: 
Raymond Zhong / New York Times:
As Trump Targets Research, Scientists Share Grief and Resolve to Fight
Discussion: Forbes
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
First Test of Trump's Power to Fire Officials Reaches Supreme Court
Minho Kim / New York Times:
Trump Fired, Then Unfired, National Nuclear Security Administration Employees. What Were Their Jobs?
Discussion: Fox News
Allan Smith / NBC News:
Transportation Department workers with ‘exceptional’ reviews told they're fired for ‘performance’ issues
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
WMG launches the WMG Pulse app in beta to let artists and their teams access real-time information about streaming performance and more across various platforms

Andrew Marchand / New York Times:
Sources: YouTube is favored to stream the NFL's opening week Friday night game, its first exclusive NFL broadcast, which may be available globally for free

CNN:
Memo: the Pentagon orders all military academies to identify and remove books from their libraries promoting “divisive concepts” like race and gender ideology

 
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