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Trump and Elon's ‘Pointless Bloodbath’ at the FAA Is Even Worse Than You Think — The Trump administration fired several FAA lawyers tasked with helping keep reckless and drunk pilots out of the skies — and officials are baffled — Late last week, just as Presidents' Day weekend was starting …
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DOGE's Millions: As Musk and Trump Gut Government, Their Ax-Cutting Agency Gets Cash Infusion — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — While Elon Musk and his underlings demand budget cuts …
Discussion:
Defense One, Twitchy, New Republic, ClearanceJobs, E&E News, Washington Times and Reuters


The private GOP panic over the slash-and-burn DOGE firings
Discussion:
Daily Caller News Foundation, USA Today, Raw Story and Washington Examiner

Inside DOGE's Dumbest Cut Yet
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Politico, IJR, The Daily Wire, The Hill, Fox News, Washington Post and Washington Times

Trump's Firing Frenzy Is Hitting the GOP Where It Hurts
Discussion:
ClearanceJobs and Scripps News


Trump expected to take control of USPS, fire postal board, officials say — The move threatens to upend trillions of dollars in ecommerce business and the 250-year-old Postal Service.
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Reuters, Rolling Stone, CNN, The Independent, Daily Mail, Wall Street Journal, Raw Story, Mediaite, Lawyers, Guns & Money and prima donna …


Justice Dept. to Drop Discrimination Case Against Elon Musk's SpaceX — The Justice Department had sued SpaceX in 2023, accusing the company of violating federal law by refusing to hire refugees and people granted asylum in the United States. — The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday …
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Axios, New York Post, Fox Business and Bloomberg
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U.S. says it will drop immigration case against SpaceX — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said it would drop a case accusing Elon Musk's space technology company SpaceX of refusing to hire certain immigrants. — The Justice Department last month signaled it could back away from the case …


Bad News for Trump as Brutal New Polls Show Him and Elon Musk Sinking — Three new national polls—from CNN, Gallup, and The Washington Post—show that President Donald Trump's job approval is decidedly underwater. Importantly, the polls also show majorities rejecting Trump's authoritarian governance.
Discussion:
Al Jazeera, Chicago Sun Times, Digby's Hullabaloo, New Jersey Online, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Raw Story
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Trump again raises idea of running for an unconstitutional third term
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CBS News, Kevin Drum, Raw Story, The Hill and Grabien


Paramount Is Starting to Fight Back Against Trump in ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit — The CBS News owner's legal strategy has revolved around arguments challenging the President's insistence that it should stay in federal court in Texas, in addition to raising the specter of discovery and arbitration.
Discussion:
Deadline, HuffPost and Law & Crime
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Georgia Republican faces town hall backlash over DOGE's ‘chainsaw approach’ to government cuts — Rep. Rich McCormick, who represents a safe GOP district, came under harsh criticism that focused on the Trump administration's moves to slash federal jobs and budgets.
Discussion:
Newsweek, Washington Examiner, Digby's Hullabaloo, Raw Story and The Fucking News

‘Stand up for us!’ Republican shouted down as he defends DOGE cuts at town hall
Discussion:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CBS News and Musk Watch


Hundreds of Philly IRS workers laid off on Thursday, union says — Around 400 Philadelphia IRS workers are expected to be laid off on Thursday, Feb. 20, union leader Alex Jay Berman confirmed — Hundreds of Philadelphia IRS employees were laid off on Thursday as part of the Trump administration's efforts …
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New Jersey Online, Raw Story, NewsNation, Twitchy, Associated Press, Denver Post, Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, Forbes, Axios, FOX8 WGHP, Fox News, Business Insider, IJR, Politico and GovExec.com


Trump's Putinization of America — It's not just in foreign policy that the President is turning Russia's way. — No matter how many times Donald Trump openly parrots the Kremlin line, it's never not going to sound wrong coming from the President of the United States.
Discussion:
Plain Dealer
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Zelensky's five moves that set off Trump
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American Greatness, Breitbart, Fox News, Daily Mail, The Kyiv Independent, The Daily Wire, Florida Politics, NBC News and RTÉ

Trump's attempts to denigrate Zelenskyy have led to a surge in Ukrainian unity
Discussion:
Al Jazeera, Raw Story, RTÉ, PolitiFact, The Kyiv Independent, Politico, BBC, HuffPost, Washington Examiner, UPI, Reuters, WHDH-TV, Daily Mail, The Hill, Diplomatic,, Deseret News, USA Today and PBS NewsHour


I cannot describe how strange Elon Musk's CPAC appearance was — So here's a literal transcript, instead. … Elon Musk spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, giving a strange and often inarticulate on-stage interview to Newsmax presenter Rob Schmitt.
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NBC News, Politico, Twitchy, USA Today, The Hill, El País, New York Post, The Independent, Raw Story, Daily Mail, al.com and The Daily Wire
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Musk waves a chainsaw and charms conservatives talking up Trump's cost-cutting efforts
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New York Daily News, New Jersey Online, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Daily Kos, The Daily Wire, RedState, Fox News, New York Post, Metro.co.uk, One America News Network, Reuters, UPI, TMZ.com, The Hill, Washington Times, The Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, Twitchy, The Independent, PBS NewsHour and Al Jazeera


Trump Claims Power to Fire Administrative Law Judges at Will — The Justice Department said a law protecting the officials from arbitrary removal is an unconstitutional intrusion on presidential authority. — The Trump administration told Congress on Thursday that it believed President …
Discussion:
Executive Functions and The Gateway Pundit
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2/21/25 ☀️ AM: … There are two ways to look at this: This resolution is a bit out of step with the Trump administration. Trump publicly said Wednesday that he likes the much broader House GOP resolution better and hopes Hill Republicans rally around that.
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Politico, New York Times, Washington Times, Conservative Partnership …, NBC News, Roll Call and The Hill
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Kash Patel, Confirmed — The Senate bent the knee again, confirming Kash Patel for a 10-year term as director of the FBI. The 51-49 vote was mostly along party lines, with Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining the Democrats this afternoon.
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CNN, New York Times, Talking Points Memo and CBS News
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He Took Musk's Resignation Offer. He Was Fired Anyway. — A TOP-RANKING REGIONAL FEMA OFFICIAL who took Elon Musk's resignation deal was fired thirteen days later by the Trump administration, raising questions about the integrity of the program that the White House put together to off-ramp tens of thousands of federal employees.


Justice Department broadens Trump's Jan. 6 clemency as it moves to drop gun cases — In court papers, DOJ revealed a newly expansive interpretation of the president's Jan. 6 pardons. — The Justice Department now says that President Donald Trump's clemency for Jan. 6 rioters covers unrelated crimes …
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NBC News, New York Times, The Hill, Blaze Media, Raw Story, MPR News, The Independent and CBS News


Steve Bannon Mimics Elon Musk's VERY Controversial Salute — Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon whipped up Friday's Conservative Political Action Conference crowd by talking about the possibility of the President Donald Trump staying in office for a third term in 2028 …
Discussion:
USA Today, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, The Independent and HuffPost


Elon Musk's private security detail gets deputized by US Marshals Service — The US Marshals Service has deputized members of Elon Musk's private security detail, giving them certain rights and protections of federal law enforcement agents, three law enforcement officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
Discussion:
Scripting News and CBS News


AOC shows how to fight back and stand strong — 🗣️ 🫶 🪧 With corporate outlets obeying in advance, supporting independent political media is more important right now than ever. Public Notice is possible thanks to paid subscribers.
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Gothamist and The Daily Signal


Singer of Canadian anthem at 4 Nations Face-Off changes lyric to protest Trump's 51st state remarks — The anthem singer who performed the Canadian anthem prior to the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game Thursday night changed a lyric in “O Canada” as a response to U.S. President Donald …
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The Hill, Breitbart, WAGA-TV, Mediaite, FOX8 WGHP, Daily Mail, Associated Press, KHOU-TV, Townhall, New York Post, Rolling Stone, CityNews Toronto and Deadline
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Chantal Kreviazuk changes O Canada lyrics at hockey game against U.S. to protest Trump
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Axios, New York Post, Townhall, Mediaite, Fox News, Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Times, The Independent, Daily Mail and USA Today


What 11 Black Voters Think About Trump's Actions in His First Month — Many Black Americans were frustrated by the Trump administration's targeting of D.E.I. programs. But others embraced the speed at which he moved. — The first few weeks of President Trump's frenetic second term …
Discussion:
USA Today
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Justice Department deletes database tracking federal police misconduct — Trump executive order ends National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, which Trump proposed creating in 2020 — The first nationwide database tracking misconduct by federal police officers has been shut …
Discussion:
Axios


Military families rocked by Trump's federal government cuts — The Trump administration's swift, sweeping cuts to the federal workforce is set to derail the livelihoods of potentially thousands of military families. — The turmoil within the military community caused by the recent firings …


Coinbase Says S.E.C. Will Drop Crypto Lawsuit — The end of a court fight with the largest U.S. crypto company would be a big win for an industry that financially backed President Trump. — The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said on Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission …
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UPI, Quartz, The Information, Fortune, The Verge and CoinDesk, more at Techmeme »


Here Are the Digital Clues to What Musk Is Really Up To — Watching Elon Musk and his band of young acolytes slash their way through the federal government, many observers have struggled to understand how such a small group could do so much damage in so little time.