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2:25 AM ET, February 20, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:
“They're Scared Shitless”: The Threat of Political Violence Informing Trump's Grip on Congress  —  With the president smashing norm after norm, even lawmakers within his party have feared for their personal safety, and at least one has told confidants that it has swayed his decision-making.
RELATED:
Nate Raymond / Reuters:
Republican lawmaker seeks US judge's impeachment over ruling against Trump
Bloomberg:   Musk's DOGE to Lead Trump's Purge of Federal Regulations
Raheem J. Kassam / The National Pulse:
EXCLUSIVE: VP J.D. Vance Warns Zelensky Over ‘Disgraceful’ Public Attacks on Trump, Confirms Ukrainian Elections Are Now U.S. Policy.  —  EXCLUSIVE: VP J.D. Vance Warns Zelensky Over ‘Disgraceful’ Public Attacks on Trump, Confirms Ukrainian Elections Are Now U.S. Policy.
RELATED:
Anton Troianovski / New York Times:
Zelensky and Trump Trade Blows as Feud Escalates Over Peace Talks  —  President Trump called Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” after the Ukrainian president took issue with his statements on the war with Russia.  — 2.3k  —  Constant Méheut and Anton Troianovski
Voice of America:
US figures do not support Trump claims on Ukraine spending  —  President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated a claim that the United States has spent $350 billion on Ukraine's war — a figure that far eclipses the amount recorded by the Department of Defense and the interagency oversight group that tracks U.S. appropriations to Ukraine.
Discussion: Politico and The Hill
Politico:
Trump's America is Putin's ally now
NBC News:
Hegseth considering firing generals as early as this week
Discussion: The Independent, ABC News and NPR
NPR:
GOP senators fact check Trump's Ukraine rhetoric, while still backing his strategy
Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:
Incompetence Leavened With Malignity
Steven Monacelli / The Texas Observer:
ICE Prosecutor in Dallas Runs White Supremacist X Account  —  Fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids began to spread the day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time.  Posts on social media and Reddit claimed that ICE had already been spotted …
Quinnipiac University Poll:
Majority Say System Of Checks & Balances Not Working Well, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Congressional Job Approval: Democrats Hit All-Time Low, Republicans Hit Record High  —  mail_outline  —  Less than 4 in 10 voters think the system of checks and balances between the executive …
RELATED:
Maya Yang / The Guardian:
Trump receives widespread backlash to social post calling himself ‘king’  —  US president made comparison after administration rescinded New York City's congestion pricing plan  —  Donald Trump is receiving widespread backlash after he likened himself to a “king” on social media following …
RELATED:
New York Post:
NYC congestion pricing axed as Trump pulls approval of hated toll
Michael David Smith / NBCSports.com:
Ex-NFL punter Chris Kluwe arrested over protest at Huntington Beach City Council meeting  —  Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was arrested over a protest at a city council meeting in Huntington Beach, California on Tuesday.  —  Kluwe was protesting Huntington Beach's decision to display a plaque …
GovExec.com:
IRS expected to fire 6,700 employees beginning Thursday  —  The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to conduct mass firings of 6,700 employees beginning Thursday, according to multiple employees notified of the plans.  —  Staff in their probationary periods—mostly recent hires …
Discussion: Frontpage Mag
RELATED:
New York Times:
I.R.S. to Begin Laying Off Roughly 6,000 Employees on Thursday
Malcolm Ferguson / New Republic:
Trump Just Endorsed Sweeping Medicaid Cuts … Trump finally decided to end the GOP's internal quarreling on how to pass his budget—and broke a huge promise on Medicaid in the process.  —  For months, Republicans have been split on whether to split Trump's massive budget agenda on the military …
RELATED:
Politico:
Trump blindsides staff, Congress with conflicting Medicaid messages
Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:   Republicans in Hispanic-heavy districts push Johnson not to slash Medicaid or SNAP
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
It's Easy To Save Billions In Taxpayer Funds When Everything Is Made Up  —  Here's a neat trick for saving taxpayers billions of dollars: just make stuff up!  —  I mean, sure, you could do all the hard work of actually finding government waste and fixing inefficient processes.
RELATED:
Kim Zetter / Wired:
DOGE Now Has Access to the Top US Cybersecurity Agency  —  DOGE technologists Edward Coristine—the 19-year-old known online as “Big Balls”—and Kyle Schutt are now listed as staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.  —  Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old engineer …
Washington Post:
Trump administration orders Pentagon to plan for sweeping budget cuts  —  The directive, detailed in a memo dated Tuesday, exempts a handful of programs, including the president's expanded military mission along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Tierney Sneed / CNN:
Trump can't end birthright citizenship, appeals court says, setting up Supreme Court showdown  —  An appeals court will not allow the Trump administration to end birthright citizenship for certain children of immigrants, in a ruling that could propel the issue to the Supreme Court.
Discussion: Axios, Forbes, NBC News and UPI
RELATED:
Corey Kilgannon / New York Times:
DOGE Cuts 9/11 Survivors' Fund, and Republicans Join Democrats in Rebuke  —  After 20 percent of the World Trade Center Health Program staff was terminated last week, Democratic lawmakers were outraged.  On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers joined them.  —  In a rare pushback against President Donald J …
Dean Fioresi / CBS News:
Cal Fire captain found stabbed to death inside of her San Diego County home  —  A Cal Fire captain was found stabbed to death inside of her San Diego County home on Monday and authorities are still searching for the suspect.  —  Deputies were dispatched to a home in the 20200 block …
Makena Kelly / Wired:
USDS Engineering Director Resigns: ‘This Is Not the Mission I Came to Serve’  —  “I do not believe that DOGE can continue to deliver the work of USDS, based on their actions so far,” wrote Anne Marshall in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.  —  The director of data science and engineering …
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Oops: Trump-Musk Cuts Just Wrecked an NIH Org Championed by GOPers  —  With co-Presidents Donald Trump and Elon Musk now inflicting deep cuts on federal agencies that sponsor medical research, thousands of scientists, researchers, and medical professionals are getting fired.
Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo
Adam Przeworski / Adam's Substack:
Diary  —  I decided to keep a record of my thoughts as events transpire, a diary.  I have read several reactions by Germans to the rise of Nazism and I was struck by their difficulty to understand where the daily events they lived through could or would lead.  In retrospect, we will know, analyze, and make sense.
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Trump Team Finds Loophole to Defy Spirit of Court Orders Blocking Spending Freezes  —  Officials cite other legal authorities — not Mr. Trump's court-blocked directives — to keep withholding foreign aid and domestic grant money.  —  The Trump administration is systematically exploiting loopholes …
Discussion: Politico
Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:
D.C. U.S. attorney probing Democrats over alleged threats, documents show  —  Analysts say Ed Martin's ‘Operation Whirlwind,’ which targets statements by Democrats and others about Elon Musk, justices and government workers, is meant to stifle criticism.  —  D.C.'s top prosecutor escalated …
Madeline Sherratt / The Independent:
11-year-old took her own life after classmates threatened to call ICE on her family, devastated mother reveals  —  ‘I waited a whole week for a miracle that my daughter would be well, but unfortunately, nothing could be done,’ despaired her mother  —  Your support helps us to tell the story
Scioto Valley Guardian:
A judge in Mississippi orders newspaper to remove editorial, so we're publishing it  —  At Scioto Valley Guardian, Ohio's leading news website, we stand unwaveringly for the freedom of the press—a cornerstone of democracy enshrined in the First Amendment.  Today, we are reprinting an editorial …
Allan Smith / NBC News:
Two more staffers quit John Fetterman's office as the senator carves his own lane with Trump  —  The imminent exit of two of Fetterman's longest-serving staffers continues a string of departures from the senator's office over the past year.  —  Two of Sen. John Fetterman's longest-serving staff members …
Discussion: Fox News, The Intercept and The Hill
Wired:
These Are the SpaceX Engineers Already Working Inside the FAA  —  SpaceX engineers were said to be simply touring the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday.  In fact, some were already being onboarded at the agency under a policy designed to increase “employment opportunities for people with disabilities.”
Discussion: CBS News and Futurism
 
 
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 More Items: 
David Corn / Mother Jones:
RFK Jr., Onetime Environmentalist, Kills NIH Climate Change Programs
Dan Ronan / WTOP News:
Trump voter, disabled military veteran, ‘valuable member’ at FEMA fired as part of DOGE cuts
Discussion: Raw Story
Katherine J. Wu / The Atlantic:
The NIH Memo That Undercut Universities Came Directly From Trump Officials
 Earlier Items: 
Kali Hays / The Guardian:
Mark Zuckerberg's charity guts DEI after assuring staff it would continue
Discussion: TechCrunch, The Hill and Fox News
CNN:
Defense officials fear impending Pentagon firings could break law and hurt military readiness
David Goldman / CNN:
Trump acknowledges ‘inflation is back’ but blames Biden
Discussion: Daily Kos, Roll Call and The Hill
Reuters:
US aviation sector requests emergency funds after recent alarming crashes
Benjamin Wittes / Default:
The Situation: What America Stands For Now
The Atlantic:
DOGE Has ‘God Mode’ Access to Government Data
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:
Court filing: internal docs show Pornhub had 706,000 videos in May 2020 flagged for child rape or other problems, often not removed until flagged 16+ times

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

 
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