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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, The Hill and Vanity Fair
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Trump tells Zelensky 'make a deal or we're out' in angry White House meeting
Discussion:
CNBC, The Hill, Reuters, CNN, Breitbart, Scripps News, Daily Mail, Twitchy, Euromaidan Press, CBS News, Skift, The Gateway Pundit, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Metro.co.uk, Washington Examiner, The Independent, Raw Story, The Post Millennial, New York Post, UPI, Jewish Insider, Semafor, The Daily Wire and Fox News

Trump cancels news conference with Zelensky after contentious Oval Office meeting
Discussion:
Fox News, CNBC, Washington Examiner, The Hill, CBS News, USA Today, Daily Mail, Deadline, WHDH-TV, Bangor Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Twitchy, The National Pulse, Townhall, The Kyiv Independent, The Independent, The Post Millennial, New York Post, Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit and Political Wire

Trump, Zelenskiy Shouting Match Shelves Deal on Ukraine Minerals
Discussion:
Reuters, WHDH-TV, Irish Examiner, Associated Press, Semafor and The Daily Caller

Trump, Zelensky and Vance Argue Over Ukraine War
Discussion:
RedState, New York Daily News and Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump ends talks with Zelensky, accuses him of not being ‘ready for peace’
Discussion:
Axios, New York Post, NPR, Louder With Crowder, The Post Millennial, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Mail

Trump-Zelensky meeting cut short after contentious Oval Office exchange
Discussion:
Fox News, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Contrarian, NOTUS, Rolling Stone, Politico, MeidasTouch News, USA Today, CBS News, The Hill, HotAir, RedState, Townhall, New York Magazine, TMZ.com, Blaze Media, The National Pulse, Ace of Spades HQ, New York Post, Mediaite, The Independent, The Kyiv Independent, Daily Mail, Associated Press, WCSH, Scripps News, The Gateway Pundit, Little Green Footballs and Political Wire

Russian state media briefly enters Oval Office during Zelenskyy meeting
Discussion:
Daily Mail, Reuters, CBS News, New Jersey Online, The Post Millennial and Raw Story

Why Aren't We in the Streets? — On Trump the Almighty and his so-far quiescent capital.
Discussion:
Althouse


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, The Hill, USA Today, Axios, Townhall, UPI, Breitbart, Daily Kos, CBS News, The Guardian, New Republic, masslive.com, The Post Millennial, The National Pulse, Backbencher, The Daily Caller and NewsNation
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Trump to sign order Friday designating English as the official language of the US

Democratic National Committee Files Lawsuit Against Trump
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Daily Caller News Foundation, Democrats and Business Insider


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:
Reason, The Daily Signal, Christian Science Monitor and spiked
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Two Good Reads. — There are two good, big feature pieces out from the Times and the Journal …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal

Elon Musk's Takeover Is Being Aided by a Trumpworld Power Couple
Discussion:
Raw Story


Bezos' changes at ‘Washington Post’ lead to mass subscription cancellations — again — More than 75,000 digital subscribers to The Washington Post have cancelled since its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced on Wednesday that he would radically overhaul the paper's opinion pages …


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.
Discussion:
Law Dork


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:
Raw Story, Associated Press, American Doom and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries


Exclusive: US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees, sources say — Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security …


DOJ demotes top prosecutors of Jan. 6 defendants, Trump allies — The veteran lawyers who were reassigned include those who prosecuted Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro and leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. — The Justice Department has demoted some of the most senior federal prosecutors …
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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, New York Times, New York Post and Twitchy


(Not) New: These Are Not the Epstein Files You're Looking For — One of the most important rules in politics is: Don't set expectations you can't meet. But even before that, there's this: make sure you have the goods you claim before, y'know, making a big deal about releasing them.
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Attorney General Pamela Bondi Releases First Phase of Declassified Epstein Files
Discussion:
Vox, The Hill, New Republic, Washington Examiner, People, Washington Post, Forbes, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, RedState, Blaze Media, New York Post, New York Times, Fox News, Gizmodo, Mediaite, NewsNation, Israpundit, The Gateway Pundit, The National Pulse, IJR, Townhall, UPI, Associated Press, Page Six, The Daily Caller, The Daily Wire, The Daily Signal, Bloomberg, The Post Millennial, Raw Story, Daily Mail, The Maine Wire, Florida Politics, Scripps News, Washington Times, Hollywood Life, FOX 32 Chicago and The Independent

What to know about the Epstein files release, from redactions to ‘Rickrolling’
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Examiner, FOX 32 Chicago, CBS News, The American Spectator, Daily Kos, The Gateway Pundit, Townhall, NBC News, New Republic, RedState, NewsNation, Blaze Media and Fox News


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:
emptywheel and Electrek


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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NOAA fires about 800 employees, with more possible Friday
Discussion:
OPB, Washington Post, NPR, New York Times, Oregonian, New Republic, Breitbart, E&E News, CBS News, USA Today, UPI, Axios and Daily Kos


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:
Talking Points Memo and Diane Ravitch's blog


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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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 Republic, New York Times, Daily Mail, CBS News, The Independent, Daily Kos and NewsNation


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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Republicans fear their big budget win is a 2026 time bomb
Discussion:
New York Times, New Republic, Raw Story, IJR, The Hill and Politico


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:
Washington Examiner and Axios
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells NPR: ‘Everything feels increasingly like a scam’
Discussion:
The Contrarian, New Republic and Daily Kos


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


Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats — Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: ‘Putin is on the inside now’ — Don't let a billionaire's algorithm control what you read.


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:
E&E News, IJR and Talking Points Memo

The White House press corps needs to prove its value if it wants people to care about its fate — The White House press corps is justifiably outraged by Donald Trump's decision to start picking which reporters are allowed to follow him around and ask him questions.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Blaze Media, CBS News, Townhall, Megyn Kelly, Fox News, Techdirt and Newsbusters


A Study of Mint Plants. A Device to Stop Bleeding. This Is the Scientific Research Ted Cruz Calls “Woke.” — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — A few months ago …


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.”