Top Items:


How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy — The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of government agencies. — On the last Friday of September 2023 …
Discussion:
Christian Science Monitor and spiked
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Elon Musk's Takeover Is Being Aided by a Trumpworld Power Couple
Discussion:
Raw Story


Trump to Sign Executive Order Making English Official U.S. Language — The U.S. has never had a national language in its nearly 250-year history — WASHINGTON—President Trump is planning to sign an executive order that would for the first time make English the official language of the U.S., according to White House officials.
Discussion:
NBC News, Washington Post, USA Today, Axios, The Hill, CBS News, UPI, Breitbart, The Guardian, Daily Kos, Backbencher, The Daily Caller, New Republic, The Post Millennial, masslive.com, The National Pulse and NewsNation
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Trump to sign order Friday designating English as the official language of the US — President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday designating English as the official language of the United States, according to the White House. — The order will allow government agencies …


Feds to start getting weekly emails asking what they did. Bosses will see if it fits Trump goals. — The new strategy is in part meant to allow supervisors and agency heads to check whether employees' work fits into the Trump administration's goals and priorities, according to people familiar with it and records obtained by The Post.
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Times, Daily Mail, CBS News, The Independent, Daily Kos and NewsNation
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Judge blocks Trump administration's mass firings of federal workers

Trump fires hundreds working on weather forecasts, satellite data and radar systems
Discussion:
The Guardian, The Week, Baltimore Sun, Daily Kos, NPR and Heatmap News

Judge Says Trump Administration Memos Directing Mass Firings Were Illegal
Discussion:
GovExec.com, NBC News, Associated Press, The Daily Caller, WUSA, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, Townhall and Blaze Media


U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, H.I.V., Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World — Here are some of the 5,800 contracts the Trump administration formally canceled this week in a wave of terse emails. — Starting Wednesday afternoon, a wave of emails went out from the State Department …
Discussion:
Politico
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Trump's Assault on Social Security — Social Security is our biggest and most successful safety net program. The annual $1.6 trillion in benefits constitutes 21% of federal spending and 40% of older adults' income. It lifts more people out of poverty than any other government program.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Newsweek, Democrats and Fox Business
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Lies, Cuts, Closures: Trump and Musk Ravage Social Security Administration
Discussion:
Associated Press, American Doom and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries


Hundreds of weather forecasters fired in latest wave of DOGE cuts — Hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees on probationary status were fired Thursday, lawmakers and weather experts said. Federal workers who were not let …
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MAGA's Orwellian notion of “free speech” — 🗣️ 💬 📣 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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BREAKING: SEC halts fraud prosecution of Chinese national who sent Trump millions — In December, Popular Information reported that Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial (WLF), a new venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Bloomberg and CoinDesk, more at Techmeme »
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A crypto mogul who invested millions into Trump coins is getting a reprieve on civil fraud charges
Discussion:
New York Times, CoinDesk, Wired and Fortune, more at Techmeme »


Musk Makes Big Mistake While Trying to Smear CNN Legal Analyst Norm Eisen — CARELESS — The billionaire DOGE chief found a woman with the same last name as a lawyer he hates. Cue the conspiracy.
Discussion:
Electrek and emptywheel


RFK Jr. moves to eliminate public comment on HHS decisions — In notice to Federal Register, health agency says public participation is not needed in many decisions — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Friday proposing to strip public participation from much of the business his department conducts.


FBI takes up EPA probe amid pushback from judge, prosecutors — While career prosecutors in two U.S. attorney offices and a U.S. judge balked at a court-ordered freeze, Citibank has locked down billions without explanation — FBI agents this week questioned Environmental Protection Agency …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and IJR


Speaker Mike Johnson Is Living in a D.C. House That Is the Center of a Pastor's Secretive Influence Campaign — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — In 2021, Steve Berger …
Discussion:
Diane Ravitch's blog


Attorney General Pamela Bondi Releases First Phase of Declassified Epstein Files — Today, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), declassified and publicly released files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his sexual exploitation …
Discussion:
New Republic, The Hill, Washington Examiner, People, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Forbes, New York Times, Fox News, New York Post, The Gateway Pundit, Mediaite, Gizmodo, NewsNation, Israpundit, IJR, UPI, Townhall, Associated Press, The Daily Caller, Page Six, The Daily Wire, RedState, The Daily Signal, Bloomberg, The Post Millennial, Raw Story, Daily Mail, Florida Politics, The Maine Wire, Scripps News, Washington Times, FOX 32 Chicago, The National Pulse, Hollywood Life and The Independent
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Young Republicans Group Invites Accused Sex Trafficker Brothers to Speak: ‘As Free Speech Absolutists...’ — The Tampa Bay Young Republicans tweeted an invitation to Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to come speak to their group, drawing swift criticism for the outreach to the men currently facing charges …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog and Florida Politics
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Here's the real threat to ‘personal liberties and free markets’ — The rapidly spreading authoritarianism coming from this administration threatens all of our freedoms. — Over the last 48 hours, I've been receiving from readers and friends the sort of notes one gets upon losing a loved one …
Discussion:
Thinking about, RedState and Issues & Insights


Republicans consider major budget change to obscure deficit impact of extending Trump's tax cuts — GOP leaders argue that extending Trump's expiring 2017 tax cuts shouldn't be treated as costing any money. Democrats compare the tactic to nuking the 60-vote filibuster rule.
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Committee for a …, HuffPost, Washington Examiner and Axios
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US Attorney Ed Martin Demotes Jan. 6 Case Supervisors — Washington's top federal prosecutor Ed Martin has demoted multiple senior supervisors involved in Jan. 6 insurrection cases to work in significantly reduced capacities. — The supervisors oversaw the office's work on federal crimes …
Discussion:
The Hill, Twitchy and New York Post


Democrats Are About to Eat Their Own — Expect a bizarre scene at the White House today, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is showing up to sign an agreement pledging some Ukrainian rare-mineral rights to the United States—theoretically in exchange for further U.S. opposition to Vladimir Putin engulfing his country.
Discussion:
Off Message, New York Times, The Hill and Vanity Fair
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Why Aren't We in the Streets? — On Trump the Almighty and his so-far quiescent capital.
Discussion:
Althouse


'He's Full Of S**t': Pediatrician In Congress Blames RFK Jr. For Child's Death From Measles — “I do blame him and others like him who, for the past 20 years, have been spreading lies about vaccines,” said Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.). — WASHINGTON — Late Wednesday, Rep. Kim Schrier …
Discussion:
CDC Newsroom, The Atlantic, Washington Examiner, STAT, Newsweek, New York Daily News, New York Times, Washington Post, The Hill, NBC News, The Independent, DCReport.org, NOTUS, Raw Story, Mediaite, WCSH and USA Today
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AOC wants answers from DOJ after Trump officials threaten investigation — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pressing the Justice Department to reveal whether she — or her office — is under federal investigation. In a letter to newly confirmed attorney general Pam Bondi …
Discussion:
Axios
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells NPR: ‘Everything feels increasingly like a scam’
Discussion:
The Contrarian, New Republic and Daily Kos


A Study of Mint Plants. A Device to Stop Bleeding. This Is the Scientific Research Ted Cruz Calls “Woke.” — The senator flagged thousands of National Science Foundation grants for using words like “female” and “diversify.” A ProPublica analysis found numerous examples of projects caught …


The Story Behind FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's Role in Project 2025 — Dozens of pages of emails reveal how Brendan Carr, the FCC's Republican chairman and close confidante of President Trump, was cleared by ethics officials to write a chapter in the 922-page manifesto when he was a commissioner.


The MAGA War on Speech — In 1791, the nation's founders ratified the First Amendment to the Constitution. It would come to offer protections in the new nation essentially never seen before: the right to ask things of and to criticize the government; to express opinions, popular or not …
Discussion:
Instapundit


A top DOJ spokesperson says he is resigning due to a ‘hostile and toxic work environment’ — Sarah Fitzpatrick — Michael Kosnar — Ken Dilanian and Rebecca Shabad — One of the Justice Department's highest-ranking spokespeople, Joshua Stueve, submitted a resignation letter today, citing a “hostile and toxic work environment.”


Elon Musk Is South African. It Explains a Lot. — Elon Musk is everywhere. — He is firing federal employees, gaining access to important government data, popping into the Oval Office, appearing on Fox News alongside President Trump and even attending a White House cabinet meeting.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Louder With Crowder, RedState, Fox News, The Independent and Althouse