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12:10 PM ET, February 24, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Jason Sattler / The Last Billionaires:
Here's how Republicans are planning to throw millions off Medicaid and lie about it  —  Trump is teaching his minions to say, “We didn't insure anyone"/"They deserved it."  —  A lot of the horror in the Donald Trump sequel is new.  —  Sure, he was terrible the first time James Comey and Vladimir Putin made him president.
RELATED:
Kelly Hooper / Politico:
Republicans' plans for Medicaid have a political problem
Discussion: New York Times
Jack Blanchard / Politico:   Playbook: A date that will live in infamy
Benjamin Guggenheim / Politico:   White House to host weekly tax discussions with congressional leadership
Politico:
Johnson's make-or-break budget week
Discussion: CNN and The Daily Caller
Politico:
Mike Johnson's moment of truth
New York Times:
Right-Wing Commentator Named F.B.I. Deputy Director  —  The choice of Dan Bongino is a radical departure from the bureau's history of having a veteran agent serve in the key role that oversees operations.  —  Dan Bongino, a former New York City police officer and Secret Service agent turned right-wing pundit …
RELATED:
BBC:
Trump names podcaster Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director  —  US President Donald Trump has appointed podcaster and commentator Dan Bongino as deputy director of the FBI.  —  Trump posted on social media that Bongino was “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country” …
Kaye Thornbrugh / Coeur d'Alene Press:
UPDATE on town hall chaos: Woman who was dragged out speaks, police chief condemns security, name of security firm confirmed  —  COEUR d'ALENE — A legislative town hall organized by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee devolved into chaos Saturday when unidentified …
Paul Krugman:
DOGE is the Theranos of Cost-Cutting  —  And other notes from the Chaos  —  Today's post will really be two short posts on different but related topics: The failure of DOGE to make any progress on its stated goals, and what's beginning to look like a rapid loss of confidence in Donald Trump's economic policies.
Discussion: Newsweek and Musk Watch
RELATED:
Stephen Engelberg / ProPublica:
The Trump Administration Keeps Citing an Untrue Stat as It Targets Federal Workers  —  A “survey of our niche audience for our niche audience” was the source for the claim that only 6% of federal employees are working full time in their offices.  The number isn't true.
RELATED:
Jamie Tarabay / Bloomberg:
Musk Vows to Suspend Federal Workers Who Don't Return to Office
Alex Nitzberg / Fox News:
Trump deploys SpongeBob meme to troll DOGE critics
Laura Guido / Bonner County Daily Bee:
New Idaho bill would cost you $100K, five years in jail for lying about someone  —  BOISE — House Speaker Mike Moyle on Friday introduced a bill to make it a felony crime to knowingly communicate a false statement about another person.  —  “I'm a firm believer in our First Amendment right …
The Hill:
Angry Democratic donors turn off the flow of money  —  Democrats are anxious to rebuild their party on the heels of President Trump's victory in November.  But they have a major problem as they try to refashion their brand: The money isn't there.  —  Democratic donors …
Apple:
Apple will spend more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years  —  Teams and facilities to expand in Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, and Washington  —  Plans include a new factory in Texas, doubling the U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Fund …
RELATED:
Rachel Louise Ensign / Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. Economy Depends More Than Ever on Rich People  —  The highest-earning 10% of Americans have increased their spending far beyond inflation.  Everyone else hasn't.
Politico:
Germany's Merz vows ‘independence’ from Trump's America, warning NATO may soon be dead  —  BERLIN — Friedrich Merz did not even wait for the final results in Germany's election before delivering what could well be a defining verdict on U.S. President Donald Trump, consigning Europe's 80-year alliance with the United States to the past.
RELATED:
David Strom / HotAir:   Europe Is Threatening to Punish US By Paying for Its Own Defense
Daniel Arkin / NBC News:
Lester Holt is stepping down as anchor of ‘NBC Nightly News’ after a decade  —  Holt will move full time to NBC's news magazine show “Dateline” at the beginning of the summer.  —  Lester Holt, the anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News” for a decade, announced Monday that he is stepping …
Chris Morris / Variety:
Roberta Flack, '70s R&B Vocalist Known for ‘Killing Me Softly,’ Dies at 88  —  Legendary pop/R&B vocalist Roberta Flack, who was launched to stardom in the early '70s by the Grammy-winning hits “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” has died …
William Kristol / The Bulwark:
Trumpism Is Not Inevitable  —  It's a time for taking the tiny wins where you can get them.  On Friday, The Bulwark published a piece spotlighting the story of Scott Curtis, a FEMA chief of staff who took Elon Musk's “Fork in the Road” buyout offer—and then was fired anyway.
Discussion: The Independent
RELATED:
Michael Tomasky / New Republic:   Trump Wants to Be President for Life—and He's Already Preparing for It
Kyla Guilfoil / NBC News:
NYC Mayor Eric Adams to close Roosevelt Hotel migrant center targeted by Musk, Trump administration  —  The hotel's closure comes as Adams promises to close another 53 emergency shelter sites by June.  —  New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that the city will close …
Jonathan Chait / The Atlantic:
The Real Goal of the Trump Economy  —  The president isn't trying to engineer prosperity for Americans.  He's seeking power for himself.  —  A quarter century ago, Vladimir Putin gathered 21 of Russia's top oligarchs in the Kremlin to let them know that he, not they, held power in Russia.
Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
Supreme Court rejects challenges to abortion clinic ‘buffer zone’ laws that restrict protesters  —  The two cases questioned a longstanding precedent that upheld such laws, which opponents say violate free speech rights.  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider overturning …
Lauren Irwin / The Hill:
Just 1 in 3 approve of job Trump doing on inflation: Survey  —  Just 1 in 3 people approve of the job President Trump is doing to curb inflation, a survey released Sunday found.  —  Thirty-two percent of respondents in the poll, released Sunday by Reuters and Ipsos, approve of the job Trump …
Discussion: Bangor Daily News and Reuters
Craig Silverman / ProPublica:
As Facebook Abandons Fact-Checking, It's Also Offering Bonuses for Viral Content  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  Hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as president …
Discussion: TechCrunch
New York Times:
Trump Just Fired 6,700 I.R.S. Workers in the Middle of Tax Season.  That's a Huge Mistake.  —  If you were to ask the top chief executives in the world to name the best strategy to attack waste in their organizations and balance the books, there is one answer you would be very …
New York Times:
Congestion Pricing Reduced Traffic.  Now It's Hitting Revenue Goals.  —  Revenue figures from the Manhattan tolling plan showed that the program is on track to raise billions for mass transit repairs.  —  New York's congestion pricing plan raised $48.6 million in tolls during its first month …
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
February 23, 2025  —  Something is shifting," scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder posted on Bluesky yesterday. “  They are still breaking things and stealing things.  And they will keep trying to break and to steal.  But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading.
Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo
Dan Sinker / Dan Sinker's Blog:
What Felt Impossible Became Possible  —  I've spent many hours since the election reading about the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.  It started the day after election day when I had hours to kill in the lobby of a Hampton Inn, waiting for a room to open up.  I loaded a library archive page up on my phone …
Frank Kendall / New York Times:
America Has a Rogue President  —  President Trump's decision to fire senior military leaders without cause is foolish and a disgrace.  It politicizes our professional military in a dangerous and debilitating way.  What frightens me even more is the removal of three judge advocates general …
Bright Line Watch:
Bright Line Watch Accelerated transgressions in the second Trump presidency  —  Accelerated transgressions in the second Trump presidency  —  Since regaining the presidency, Donald Trump is already challenging America's constitutional order.  In the weeks since he took office …
CNN:
How Trump's government-cutting moves risk exposing the CIA's secrets  —  The CIA is conducting a formal review to assess any potential damage from an unclassified email sent to the White House in early February that identified for possible layoffs some officers by first name and last initial …
Discussion: Raw Story, HotAir and Twitchy
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Trump personally decided to limit Associated Press' access to White House  —  The acknowledgement came in a lawsuit filed by the news organization.  —  President Donald Trump personally decided to bar The Associated Press from some White House events and spaces, the White House said in court documents Monday.
Default:
The Administrative State's Two Faces  —  The attack on the administrative state takes on only half of it—the wrong half.  —  Meet The Authors … In many ways, the first month of the second Trump administration has been shocking.  The President has quickly and emphatically demonstrated …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Douglas Belkin / Wall Street Journal:
Columbia Hires Mike Pompeo, Trump's Former Secretary of State, to Teach Diplomacy
Discussion: Axios
David Dayen / American Prospect:
The Coup Has Failed  —  Trump's falling approval ratings reveal an out-of-touch presidency …
Margot Cleveland / The Federalist:
Institutional Resistance To Trump Proves The Left's Disdain For Democracy
Ben Makuch / The Guardian:
Neo-Nazi group plots rebuild as Trump's FBI chief takes helm, audio reveals
Discussion: The Independent and Raw Story
Eric Levitz / Vox:
Elon Musk's worldview is eerily similar to his authoritarian grandad's
Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
What Elon Musk's war on federal workers owes to Gamergate
 Earlier Items: 
Jonathan Martin / Politico:
How Canada Hopes to Thwart Trump
Matt Viser / Washington Post:
The inside story of how President Trump came to name the ‘Gulf of America’
New Republic:
Fiasco for Musk as Trump Officials Openly Defy Him Amid New GOP Panic
Discussion: CBS News
Wall Street Journal:
DOJ Slip-Ups Show Challenges of Defending Trump's Freewheeling Approach
Discussion: Raw Story
Declan Harty / Politico:
‘People are really bulled up’: Stock surge has some on Wall Street worried
Discussion: Raw Story
Kipp Jones / Mediaite:
'It's Over!' James Carville Tells Dan Abrams the Trump White House Will Suffer a ‘Massive Collapse’ in ‘Less Than 30 Days’