The Conversation -- February 9, 2025

David Goldman & Chris Isidore of CNN: “... Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One Sunday, said he planned on announcing a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States Monday. 'We’ll also be announcing steel tariffs on Monday,' he said, adding, 'any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff.... Aluminum, too.'... Trump also said he planned to hold a separate news conference Tuesday or Wednesday to announce massive new reciprocal tariffs, which could match other countries’ tariffs on US goods dollar-for-dollar.... He did not provide many details about how expansive the new tariffs would be or when they may go into effect. It’s not clear if the new steel and aluminum tariffs will be on top of the tariffs already in place on exports from countries like China.”

Alex Gangitano of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Sunday announced that he asked the Treasury Department to stop producing pennies, calling the one cent coin wasteful. He said in a Truth Social post that he told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to end minting the small-value coins with President Abraham Lincoln’s image on them.... The cost of making a penny was nearly 3.7 cents in Fiscal Year 2024 and the coin has cost above face value to make for 19 consecutive fiscal years, according to the U.S. Mint’s annual report. Pennies were made of copper before 1962 and are currently made majority of zinc but with copper plating. Lincoln has been on the penny since 1909 and the penny was the first coin made by the U.S. Mint, according to the Treasury Department.... Elon Musk, who has been tasked by Trump with cutting waste in the U.S., targeted the penny in a post on X last month.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump probably can't stand the idea of honoring a person popularly known as "Honest Abe" and the president who "freed the slaves." (It was actually the Thirteenth Amendment that "freed the slaves,"; Lincoln actively supported it.)

The Emperor Trump. Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump told the largest American television audience of the year that he plans to pursue the annexation of Canada as the nation’s 51st state. In an interview on the Super Bowl LIX pregame show on Fox, Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Trump about recorded comments in a private meeting made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — in which Trudeau claimed the United States is serious about 'absorbing” Canada.... 'Is it a real thing?' Baier asked Trump. 'Yeah, it is,' Trump replied. [']I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state. Because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen too much. Why are we paying $200 billion a year essentially in subsidy to Canada? Now if they are a 51st state, I don’t mind doing it.'”

Vance Hints at Self-Coup d'État. Charlie Savage & Minho Kim of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance declared on Sunday that 'judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,' delivering a warning shot to the federal judiciary in the face of court rulings that have, for now, stymied aspects of ... [Donald] Trump’s agenda. The statement, issued on social media, came as federal judges have temporarily barred a slew of Trump administration actions from taking effect.... Mr. Vance, a 2013 graduate of Yale Law School, has repeatedly argued in recent years that presidents like Mr. Trump can and should ignore court orders that they say infringe on their rightful executive powers. While his post did not go that far, it carried greater significance given that he is now vice president. The post may also offer a window on the administration’s thinking toward the orders against it as Mr. Trump has openly violated numerous statutes.... It also raised the question of whether the administration would stop abiding by rulings if it deemed them to be illegitimately impeding his agenda....

“Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday as he went to New Orleans for the Super Bowl, Mr. Trump said the judge [who temporarily prohibited DOGE personnel from accessing the Treasury Department's payroll systems] had overreached, calling the Treasury ruling a 'disgrace.' But he appeared to be contemplating appeals, saying the court case 'had a long way to go.' Mr. Trump added: 'No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision.'”

~~~~~~~~~~

The people who are opposed to aid should realize that this is a very powerful source of strength for us.... As we do not want to send American troops to a great many areas where freedom may be under attack, we send you. -- President John F. Kennedy, to mission directors of the newly-created USAID, 1962 ~~~

~~~ The Enemy Within. Ben Rhodes in a New York Times op-ed: “... it would be wrong to dismiss Mr. Trump’s dizzying array of pronouncements and executive actions on foreign policy as simply the fulfillment of his campaign promises. He did not run on the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D., the conquest of Greenland or the occupation of Gaza. Rather than showing strength, his foreign policy betrays a loss of American self-confidence and self-respect, eliminating any pretense that the United States stands for the things it has claimed to support since fighting two world wars: freedom, self-determination and collective security.... Mr. Trump’s targets do not suggest strength. Picking on Panama and Greenland or threatening trade wars with Canada and Mexico has the feel of a schoolyard bully looking for someone smaller to push around.... Stripped of U.S.A.I.D. funding, struggling under the weight of tariffs, nations including U.S. allies may now look to China as a more predictable source of trade and investment.... When the richest man in the world can so easily undermine our place on the global stage, it is, quite simply, a harbinger of decline: a sign of a corrupted superpower so brittle that its sources of influence can be taken apart from within.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As you read further down this page, you'll be reminded that Trump's "vision' of the U.S. is not only of a cruel, selfish, undemocratic oligarchy, but also of one that is dumbed down, one that is no longer a leader in scientific innovation or in medical advances or in higher education. Trump is opposed to every bit of positive progress in arenas in which we've excelled or done well or at least kept up.

We already know that Trump & Musk lied bigly when they claimed that Politico & other media (a/k/a LEFT WING "RAGS") took bribes from "corrupt," "criminal" USAID workers in exchange for writing positive stories about Democrats. In yesterday's Comments, Patrick wrote a revelatory post about all of the other "interesting" spending Musk & his JV Squad are supposedly finding as they comb through USAID accounts. Based on Patrick's remark, I surmise that all of accusations Team MuskyTrump has made about USAID expenditures are whoppers.

Michael Boorstein of the Washington Post: “... high-level members of the Trump administration and allies of the president are leveling attacks on religious groups, including Catholics and Lutherans, who ... help migrants. These attacks may signal a new political approach toward religion, some experts say, one comfortable belittling faith groups — despite ... Donald Trump’s self-described brand as a champion of Christians. More broadly, it has aligned some Republicans against religious groups that in some cases propelled their rise to power, Trump’s included. Several religious groups working overseas..., [including] World Relief, the country’s largest evangelical refugee resettlement program..., say they are facing a cash crisis after the Trump administration ended funding for programs to resettle refugees from around the world in the United States.... Last month, Vice President JD Vance criticized the U.S. Catholic Church’s efforts to help immigrants and refugees, suggesting the Church is motivated by money, and alleged without evidence that it works with millions of 'illegal immigrants.'... On Sunday, on the social media site X, right-wing Trump ally Mike Flynn accused Lutheran organizations that receive federal grants to help the needy of committing 'money laundering.'... Billionaire Elon Musk ... then shared Flynn’s post, calling 'illegal' multiple Lutheran organizations that work in the United States to provide health care to homeless people, run food pantries, and help migrants and refugees.” ~~~

~~~ Joe Conason in AlterNet: "For Christians here and across the world, the ongoing confrontation over the fate of USAID dramatically illustrates the moral degeneration of the politicians who most fervently profess their piety. While Donald Trump wraps himself in the mantle of the Almighty, his assault on the world’s largest relief agency is a modern passion play, with scheming malefactors of great wealth sadistically persecuting sincere people of faith who seek to serve the poor.... [USAID's] single largest contractor is Catholic Relief Services, which has provided billions of dollars in assistance to impoverished communities on every continent. Nearly every denomination is represented among the recipients of USAID funding, including major evangelical and conservative organizations...."

Gustaf Kilander of the Independent:  “... Donald Trump has removed the security clearances from several more of his perceived enemies. Trump, who had already removed former President Joe Biden’s clearance this week, now added former Secretary of State Antony Blinken to that list, telling The New York Post he had said: 'Bad guy. Take away his passes.' Trump took aim at eight Democrats, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.... Other Democrats targeted by Trump include former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Biden Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who worked on the Department of Justice’s response to the attack on Congress on January 6, 2021. Andrew Weissman, the top prosecutor on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating the Trump 2016 campaign’s connections to Russia, was also on the list, as is attorney Mark Zaid. Zaid represented a CIA analyst who was a whistleblower following Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019.... Also included in the purge was attorney Norm Eisen, who served as the special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment.” ~~~

~~~ Time to Trash Another Black Woman. Philip Nieto of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump said Saturday that the Duke of Sussex was safe from being removed from the country for the time being while slamming his wife Meghan Markle in comments to The New York Post. Prince Harry’s immigration status has become the subject of controversy as of late with organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation suggesting the embattled British royal previously concealed illicit drug use that should have disqualified him from receiving a US visa.... “I’ll leave him alone[,' Trump said of Harry]. 'He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”

Ellen Nakashima & Warren Strobel of the Washington Post: “Candidates for top national security positions in the Trump administration have faced questions that appear designed to determine whether they have embraced the president’s false claims about the outcome of the 2020 election and its aftermath.... Two individuals, both former officials who were being considered for positions within the intelligence community, were asked to give 'yes' or 'no' responses to the questions: Was Jan. 6 'an inside job?' And was the 2020 presidential election 'stolen?' These individuals, who did not give the desired straight 'yes' answer, were not selected. It is not clear whether there were other factors that contributed to the decision.... Separately, at least two individuals in FBI field offices outside Washington, who were being interviewed for senior positions, were asked similar questions....”

The Enemy Within. David Sanger of the New York Times: “A federal judge’s order that Elon Musk’s team temporarily cease boring into the Treasury Department’s payment systems raises a far larger question: whether what Elon Musk has labeled the Department of Government Efficiency is creating a major cyber and national security vulnerability.... It is a risk that cybersecurity experts have been sounding alarms over in the past 10 days, as Mr. Musk’s band of young coders demanded access to the Treasury’s innermost systems. That access was ultimately granted by Scott Bessent, the newly confirmed Treasury secretary. But other than vague assurances that the new arrivals at the Treasury’s door had proper clearances, there was no description of how their work would be secured — and plenty of reason to believe that it would make it easier for Chinese and Russian intelligence services to target the Treasury’s systems.... Federal officials say that they have been shocked by the carelessness with which Mr. Musk’s workers pierced government systems, including two that are repositories of millions of sensitive records: the Treasury and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, both of which have been major targets of China’s intelligence services.... Bruce Schneier, a cybersecurity expert at Harvard..., called the entry of Mr. Musk’s force 'the most consequential security breach' in American history.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I suspect that Musk sees an upside to his carelessness: if his boys do break a system and make it vulnerable to attacks, they have created a perfect excuse for shutting down the system. Say, maybe we will go back to a federal bureaucracy where operations run on paper.

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Elon Musk’s blitzkrieg on Washington has brought into focus his vision for a dramatically smaller and weaker government, as he and a coterie of aides move to control, automate — and substantially diminish — hundreds if not thousands of public functions.... Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service has followed the same playbook at one federal agency after another: Install loyalists in leadership. Hoover up internal data, including the sensitive and the classified. Gain control of the flow of funds. And push hard — by means legal or otherwise — to eliminate jobs and programs not ideologically aligned with Trump administration goals.... The aim is a diminished government that exerts less oversight over private business, delivers fewer services and comprises a smaller share of the U.S. economy — but is far more responsive to the directives of the president.”

David McAfee of the Raw Story: Elon "Musk ... was dealt a blow over the weekend when a judge reportedly blocked Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal financial data from the Treasury Department, which resulted in a MAGA meltdown. Musk ... [described the courts as] 'Corrupt judges protecting corruption.'... GOP Senator Mike Lee said, 'This has the feel of a coup — not a military coup, but a judicial one.' Musk reposted that comment Saturday evening, writing simply, 'Yes.' In a separate post, Musk shared a statement from someone suggesting various reasons for defying court orders. That comment stated, 'I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us…[.]'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Mike Lee is confused. The real coup would come, of course, if Musk defied the court's order. Several responsible writers have suggested Musk and/or Trump would defy court orders or perhaps have already done so, as there is no mechanism in place to check up on Trump or President Musk & Crew to determine whether or not they're complying with judicial orders. ~~~

~~~ Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “More than 40 lawsuits filed in recent days by state attorneys general, unions and nonprofits seek to erect a bulwark in the federal courts against ... [Donald] Trump’s blitzkrieg of executive actions that have upended much of the federal government and challenged the Constitution’s system of checks and balances. Unlike the opening of Mr. Trump’s first term in 2017, little significant resistance to his second term has arisen in the streets, the halls of Congress or within his own Republican Party. For now at least, lawyers say, the judicial branch may be it.... But ... the judiciary is slow by design, and the legal opposition to Mr. Trump’s opening moves may struggle to keep up with his fire hose of disruption.... [Moreover, there is a question of whether or not Mr. Trump will abide by the courts' decisions.] On Friday, Democratic attorneys general went back to court to demand that a federal judge enforce his restraining order that was meant to keep billions of dollars in federal grant funds flowing. They said that the Trump administration had not complied.”

Tom Ellison of McSweeney's publishes an essay by Elon Musk that is very upbeat! “A lot of people doubted that my Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could do what it set out to do. But I am proud to say that in just weeks, we have used the Tesla, SpaceX, and X playbook to make America’s collapse much more efficient. It’s been obvious for years that the US system was declining with great waste and sluggishness.... For too long, our authoritarianism has been 'creeping.' Our oligarchy: 'quasi.' Our Nazis: 'neo.' But now, Americans will get what they want: a stripped-down, streamlined speed run of 1920s Germany meets Ex Machina.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Still, I have a feeling Elon wrote before Andy Borowitz broke this news: “In a disastrous setback for Elon Musk, on Friday a coding error by a teenaged member of DOGE resulted in the tech titan’s entire fortune being donated to Save the Children.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Ryan Mac & Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: “Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were instructed to cease 'all supervision and examination activity' and 'all stakeholder engagement,' effectively stopping the agency’s operations, in an email from the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, on Saturday evening. Mr. Vought, who was confirmed this week to lead the Office of Management and Budget, was on Friday named acting director of the consumer protection bureau, the federal government’s financial industry watchdog. In his email to staff on Saturday, he reaffirmed earlier instructions from the previous acting director, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who ordered last week that staff should not issue any new rules or guidance and cease all investigations. The agency, created by Congress in 2011 as a financial industry watchdog, cannot be closed without congressional action, but its director can freeze most of its actions by halting enforcement, weakening or repealing regulations and softening its supervision of banks and other lenders.” ~~~

~~~ Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette: “It’s been a rough ass three weeks, and we could all use some levity. To that point, I bring you an absolutely hilarious and delightful press release from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s union, all about a visit they received from the incels of DOGE. The entire thing straight up disappeared from the site not long after it was published — coincidentally right around the same time that the wee DOGE employees came back a second time and started screwing with everything again." Pennachhia includes the entire CFPB Union welcome to their newest colleagues, "Jeffrey Epstein confidant Elon Musk" and his "three underlings." Hilarious (and actually informative). Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have thought for a long time that Wonkette was subscriber-firewalled, but it is not. You are welcome to make a contribution -- and you should -- but we among the churchmice are welcome, too.

Trump Welcomes Foreign Election Interference. Colby Itkowitz, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration this week eliminated much of the federal government’s front line of defense against foreign interference in U.S. elections. The move, which follows years of Trump and his allies disputing the role that Russian influence campaigns played in his first successful bid for president, alarmed state election officials and election security experts, who warned that safeguarding Americans from foreign disinformation campaigns will be difficult if no one at the federal level is doing that work. On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi dissolved an FBI task force formed in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections that worked to uncover covert efforts by Russia, China, Iran and other foreign adversaries to manipulate U.S. voters. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security sent a letter Wednesday placing at least seven federal employees who work on teams combating foreign disinformation within the election security arm of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, on administrative leave.... 'This is an invitation for more foreign interference,' said Lawrence Norden ... of ... the Brennan Center for Justice....”

Jennifer Richards & Jodi Cohen of ProPublica: “The U.S. Department of Education told employees late Friday that it will end all programs, contracts and policies that 'fail to affirm the reality of biological sex,' carrying out ... Donald Trump’s vow to restrict transgender rights.... The order appears designed to target programs that in recent years supported transgender students — school-based mental health services and support for homeless students, for example.... Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, is still awaiting confirmation. She is co-founder with her husband of World Wrestling Entertainment and chair of the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit that has campaigned against transgender rights in schools.” MB: Sorry, this memo is nothing short of an order to bully students our education system is supposed to be nurturing. I believe First Lady Melanie said she planned to get right back into her fake anti-bullying campaign. Won't some enterprising reporter ask her what she's going to do about this bully directive?

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “In a striking display of the limits being placed on congressional authority in the first weeks of the new administration, several Democratic lawmakers were denied entry to the U.S. Department of Education on Friday. Similar scenes played out throughout the week at other agencies where Democratic lawmakers were locked out, including Treasury Department offices, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Environmental Protection Agency.... The clash, captured on video by multiple members, was yet another episode that became a flashpoint in the intensifying battle over the administration’s efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy.”

Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is cutting billions of dollars in biomedical research funding, alarming academic leaders who said it would imperil their universities and medical centers and drawing swift rebukes from Democrats who predicted dire consequences for scientific research. The move, announced Friday night by the National Institutes of Health, drastically cuts its funding for 'indirect' costs related to research. These are the administrative requirements, facilities and other operations that many scientists say are essential but that some Republicans have claimed are superfluous.... The NIH policy, essentially a massive budget cut to science and medical centers across the country, was quickly denounced as devastating by universities and research organizations.... Industry leaders also questioned whether the move was legal, pointing to existing law governing NIH funding.” Politico's story is here.

Marie: I have done some biomedical research myself and determined that Donald Trump's eyes are failing. What else could explain the super-colorful tone of his makeup in recent months and the increasingly obvious line between his pasty skin and the orange-glow makeup. Like many older people, he suffers from color vision deficiency, and apparently also cannot see the sharp line he draws around his orange mask. ~~~

One Effort to Save the Nation from Trump: Preventing the Great Erasure. Alexandra O'Connell-Domenech of the Hill: “Scientists, researchers and private health organizations scrambled to preserve as much federal public health data and guidelines as possible last week after news reached them that the Trump administration planned to pull down federal agency websites. Many have taken that data and moved it to personal websites or Substack accounts, while others are still figuring out what to do with what they have gathered. These often-anonymous archivists are now facing the colossal task of connecting with one another to figure out just how much information has been saved and how to re-create a centralized network of websites where it can be easily accessed by the public again.” MB: This reminds me of movies or TV shows where the protagonists race to save essential data from evil hackers even as the images on the computer screens begin to disappear or morph into scary messages. We're all now minor characters in a real-life (if prosaic) drama in which good and bad are too clearly in evidence, and the bad guys are well-defined, powerful adversaries. The trouble with these real-life dramas is that they don't always have happy endings.

Marie: I have been thinking of this clip for the past few weeks. Masha Gessen (linked next) has a striking explanation of why it is so important now: ~~~

~~~ Masha Gessen of the New York Times on the rationalizations for "anticipatory obediance" to an autocrat. "There are many good reasons to accommodate budding dictators, and only one reason not to: Anticipatory obedience is a key building block of their power. The autocracies of the 20th century relied on mass terror. Those of the 21st often don’t need to; their subjects comply willingly. But once an autocracy gains power, it will come for many of the people who quite rationally tried to safeguard themselves and their businesses." Thanks to RAS for the lead. The link above is supposed to be a gift link, but it's one I "borrowed," so I'm not sure it will work. If you can read Gessen's whole essay, I urge you to do so as the real-life examples they gives of each "rationale" are chilling.

Susan Svrluga & Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: “Days into ... Donald Trump’s second term, colleges and universities are confronting sweeping, fast-moving challenges that touch on almost every aspect of their operations. The administration has threatened their funding, federal agencies are launching investigations, lawmakers may increase the endowment tax, and executive orders aimed at wiping out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts nationwide could transform the culture at some universities. And on Friday, the Trump administration spread alarm among universities with an announcement that the National Institutes of Health is cutting billions of dollars in 'indirect' costs for biomedical research funding.... University labs have already shut down and will continue to shut down, Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, said Saturday. He said there will be legal action early next week seeking an injunction, likely Monday from a range of institutions and organizations. Trump is calling for changes that reach every type of school and could affect almost every function of college life from financial aid and academic services for students to research funding that has long driven innovation.”

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has moved more than 30 people described as Venezuelan gang members to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, as U.S. forces and homeland security staff prepare a tent city for potentially thousands of migrants. About a dozen of the men were brought in from El Paso, Texas, on Friday, as Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, arrived at Guantánamo.... The Trump administration has not released any of their identities, though they are believed to all be men, nor has it said how long they might be held at the island outpost.” The article features photos by Doug Mills. MB: You know, the U.S. has what amounts to a forever lease on 45 square miles; there's some beautiful beachfront property there, Jared. ~~~

~~~ Silvia Foster-Frau of the Washington Post: “The more than three dozen immigrants being held at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba have entered what lawyers are calling a 'legal black hole.'... The American Civil Liberties Union, along with more than a dozen immigrant advocacy groups, sent a letter Friday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio requesting immediate access to the migrants, as well as information on their immigration status, which agency has custody of them, their anticipated length of stay there and what authority the government has to transfer them from the U.S. to Guantánamo.... Four lawyers who are familiar with the military prison say the Trump administration is breaking the law by denying [the detainees] access to legal counsel....”

~~~~~~~~~~

Ohio. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: “The city of Springfield, Ohio, which was singled out by Donald J. Trump and JD Vance during the presidential campaign with false and outrageous claims about Haitian immigrants, has sued a neo-Nazi group that helped draw national attention to the small city in the first place. The suit, filed in federal court on Thursday, was brought by the mayor, Rob Rue, along with several city commissioners and Springfield residents. It says that Blood Tribe, a four-year-old neo-Nazi group, began a campaign of intimidation focused on Haitian immigrants in the city. It culminated last summer in 'a torrent of hateful conduct, including acts of harassment, bomb threats and death threats' against locals who spoke in support of the Haitian residents.... The suit does not mention Mr. Trump, who falsely claimed at a presidential debate in September that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating dogs and cats, nor Mr. Vance, who urged his 'fellow patriots' to 'keep the cat memes flowing.'”

News Lede

New York Times: “Sam Nujoma, the founding president of an independent Namibia, who led a Soviet-backed guerrilla army in an uneven fight against the vastly superior forces of white-ruled South Africa in a victory that owed much to the dynamics of the Cold War, died on Saturday. He was 95.”

The Conversation -- February 8, 2025

Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette: “It’s been a rough ass three weeks, and we could all use some levity. To that point, I bring you an absolutely hilarious and delightful press release from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s union, all about a visit they received from the incels of DOGE. The entire thing straight up disappeared from the site not long after it was published — coincidentally right around the same time that the wee DOGE employees came back a second time and started screwing with everything again." Pennachhia includes the entire CFPB Union welcome to their newest colleagues, "Jeffrey Epstein confidant Elon Musk" and his "three underlings." Hilarious (and actually informative). Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have thought for a long time that Wonkette was subscriber-firewalled, but it is not. You are welcome to make a contribution -- and you should -- but we among the churchmice are welcome, too.

We already know that Trump & Musk lied bigly when they claimed that Politico & other media (a/k/a LEFT WING "RAGS") took bribes from "corrupt," "criminal" USAID workers in exchange for writing positive stories about Democrats. In today's thread, Patrick writes a revelatory post about all of the other "interesting" spending Musk & his JV Squad are supposedly finding as they comb through USAID accounts. Based on Patrick's remark, I surmise that all of accusations Team MuskyTrump has made about USAID expenditures are whoppers.

Tom Ellison of McSweeney's publishes an essay by Elon Musk that is very upbeat! “A lot of people doubted that my Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could do what it set out to do. But I am proud to say that in just weeks, we have used the Tesla, SpaceX, and X playbook to make America’s collapse much more efficient. It’s been obvious for years that the US system was declining with great waste and sluggishness.... For too long, our authoritarianism has been 'creeping.' Our oligarchy: 'quasi.' Our Nazis: 'neo.' But now, Americans will get what they want: a stripped-down, streamlined speed run of 1920s Germany meets Ex Machina.” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Still, I have a feeling Elon wrote before Andy Borowitz broke this news: “In a disastrous setback for Elon Musk, on Friday a coding error by a teenaged member of DOGE resulted in the tech titan’s entire fortune being donated to Save the Children.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Elena Moore of NPR: Donald "Trump says he is 'immediately revoking' former President Joe Biden's security clearances — access that Biden stripped from Trump four years ago. Former presidents are historically given intelligence briefings after leaving office. In 2021, Biden revoked Trump's access just weeks after being sworn in, arguing Trump exhibited 'erratic behavior.'... Trump criticized the former president's cognitive ability and referenced a report by special counsel Robert Hur that described Biden as having a 'poor memory.'... 'The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from "poor memory" and, even in his "prime," could not be trusted with sensitive information,' Trump said on Truth Social. 'I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU'RE FIRED.'" The AP's report is here.

Is it possible to get fired from a job because the boss doesn't like the performance of another person who formerly held that job, and even when that former job-holder did nothing wrong? Well, yes, yes it is. ~~~

~~~ Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “... Donald Trump has fired the head of the National Archives, after complaining for nearly two years about the agency’s role in the Justice Department’s investigation and eventual prosecution of him over a slew of classified documents kept at his Mar-a-Lago home following his first term. The director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, Sergio Gor, announced in a social media post Friday that Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan had been removed from her position.... Shogan, 49, was not the archivist at the time the agency was attempting to retrieve boxes of presidential records from Trump’s estate in 2021 and 2022. But Trump has viewed NARA with suspicion since the investigation and has openly described its top staff as complicit in efforts to damage him politically.”

Time Magazine Trolls Trump. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “The president did not look amused. He was meeting the Japanese prime minister for the first time on Friday when a reporter shouted out to ask if he had a 'reaction' to the new cover of Time magazine. The cover, the reporter told Mr. Trump, depicts 'Elon Musk sitting behind your Resolute Desk.' 'No,' Mr. Trump answered pointedly. He looked down at the floor.... A translator related the exchange to the prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, in Japanese.... Mr. Trump waited until the interpreter had finished and then cracked: 'Is Time magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that.' Everyone around him laughed gamely, if a bit nervously. It is unlikely that Mr. Trump didn’t know whether Time magazine was still in business. His own face had, after all, stared out from its cover only two months ago, when the magazine anointed him its 'Person of the Year.' As part of the rollout of that issue, Mr. Trump rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange in front of a blown-up version of the cover.”

How about Big Foot for chair of the American Ballet Theatre? Or ~~~

~~~ Shawn McCreesh, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump announced his intention on Friday to bring the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington more firmly under his control, saying he would dismiss several board members and install himself as chairman.... Mr. Trump said he would 'immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.' He added: 'We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP.'... The Kennedy Center said in a statement on Friday evening that it had not received any communication from the White House regarding the changes to its board and acknowledged that some board members had received termination notices.... During his first term, Mr. Trump broke with tradition by declining to attend the Kennedy Center Honors, the group’s hallmark program, after some honorees criticized him. Mr. Trump’s plan to remake the board would break with years of precedent at the Kennedy Center, which has long prided itself on a tradition of bipartisanship.... Last month, the Trump administration quietly dissolved the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities....” The Guardian's story is here.

Ted Johnson of Deadline: “Donald Trump and Elon Musk each took to social media [Friday] morning to rage against members of the media who have said or reported something they do not like, calling for the news figures to be fired. On Truth Social, Trump blasted The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, a columnist, who appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Trump wrote, 'Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post is INCOMPETENT! So sad to see him trying to justify the waste, fraud, and corruption at USAID with his pathetic Radical Left SPIN. He should be fired immediately!!!'... Musk targeted Katherine Long, reporter at The Wall Street Journal. On Thursday, Long broke the story about Marko Elez, a staff member at Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, who was linked to a now-deleted social media account that embraced racism and eugenics.

“Musk has called himself a free speech absolutist, and Trump signed an executive order that claimed to be restoring free speech. The order accused Joe Biden’s administration of putting 'coercive pressure' on third parties — social media platforms — to suppress speech. Trump’s order was to 'ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.'” The New York Times' story is here. More on Musk/Elez/Long linked below. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, according to Google's AI (and if I had bothered to look further, probably also according to some actual legal experts), Trump has violated not only his own executive order but also the First Amendment. Google says, "... a demand by a government official to fire a speaker based solely on their speech is generally considered a violation of the First Amendment, as it constitutes an attempt to suppress speech based on its content, which is heavily protected under the Constitution; even if the official does not directly have the power to fire the speaker, the threat of doing so can still be a form of censorship." But I guess if we asked the Supreme Court about it, we'd find out It's OK If Trump Does It.

Another Setback for the Trump/Musk Presidency*. Michael Crowley & Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt for now some elements of its attempt to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a 2019 Trump appointee, issued a restraining order pausing the imminent administrative leave of 2,200 U.S.A.I.D. employees and a plan to withdraw nearly all of the agency’s overseas workers within 30 days. He also ordered the temporary reinstatement of 500 agency employees already on administrative leave. The judge was ruling on a lawsuit filed on behalf of the largest union representing federal workers and the union that represents Foreign Service officers. Judge Nichols said the unions had established that the employees affected by the leave and withdrawal orders would suffer 'irreparable harm.' Judge Nichols ordered the pause in the administration’s plans through next Friday to allow for 'expedited' arguments to determine the legality of the actions, and scheduled another hearing for Wednesday....

“The lawsuit was filed Thursday by Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group on behalf of the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees. It notes the central role Elon Musk played in the agency’s gutting. Mr. Musk, a Trump ally and donor, recently boasted online of 'feeding U.S.A.I.D. into the wood chipper.'” ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Funds from the world’s richest nation once flowed from the largest global aid agency to an intricate network of small, medium and large organizations that delivered aid: H.I.V. medications for more than 20 million people; nutrition supplements for starving children; support for refugees, orphaned children and women battered by violence. Now, that network is unraveling. The Trump administration froze foreign aid for 90 days and has planned to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development to just 5 percent of its work force, although a federal judge paused the plan on Friday. Given wars and strapped economies, other governments or philanthropies are unlikely to make up for the shortfall, and recipient nations are too hamstrung by debt to manage on their own. Even the largest organizations are unlikely to emerge unscathed. In interviews, more than 25 aid workers, former U.S.A.I.D. employees and officials from aid organizations described a system thrown into mass confusion and chaos.”

~~~ Why will these people suffer and die? Because the world's richest man is a fan of (or is adopting as an excuse) blatantly false conspiracy theories to shut down vital aid. ~~~

~~~ Steven Myers & Stuart Thompson of the New York Times look at a few of the right-wing lies, Russian propaganda & loopy conspiracy theories behind the attempts to close USAID: Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. “amplified [a] false video ... from an account that researchers have said spreads Russian disinformation ... as Mr. Musk pressed a crusade to shut down U.S.A.I.D.... The dismantling of the agency has been accompanied by a torrent of anger online from right-wing influencers and accounts that are promoting false claims and conspiratorial thinking.... Mr. Musk ... has used the platform he took over in 2022 as a megaphone for the effort to slash the federal bureaucracy.... The flurry of attacks also underscored once again how much Republican views have increasingly converged with propaganda emanating from the Kremlin or with narratives aligned with its international goals, especially on Mr. Musk’s platform.... For Russia and China, the American conservative uproar over U.S.A.I.D. has been met with startled glee.” ~~~

     ~~~ See also Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic, on "How Elon Musk’s conspiracy theories became official White House policy. The Trump administration’s attempt to eliminate USAID is many things: an unfolding humanitarian nightmare, a rollback of American soft power, the thin end of a wedge meant to reorder the Constitution. But upon closer examination, it is also an outbreak of delusional paranoia that has spread from Elon Musk throughout the Republican Party’s rank and file." Linked yesterday in a gift link from laura h. MB: Chait's message is similar to a post I linked yesterday by Christian Paz of Vox, who also elaborated on the theme that "The nation’s governance is increasingly at the whim of online conspiracy theorists."

Once a Criminal, Always a Criminal. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “So, here’s a shocker: It turns out that, if you elect a felon as president of the United States, he will continue to break laws once he’s in office.... [Arguably,] the new administration over the course of the last fortnight has violated each of the following laws....  The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024. The Administrative Leave Act of 2016. The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. The Inspector General Act of 1978. The Privacy Act of 1974. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. The Public Health Service Act 1944. The Antideficiency Act of 1870....

“And those don’t include the ways in which Trump already appears to be in violation of the Constitution: The First Amendment’s protections of free speech and association; the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection and due process; the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment; the 14th Amendment’s promise of birthright citizenship; Article I’s spending, presentment, appropriations and bicameralism clauses; Article II’s take-care clause; and the separation of powers generally.” Milbank urges Democrats not to give Trump a single vote. MB: That means you, too, John Fetterman. The link above is supposed to be a gift link. If it fails, please let me know. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Marie: As Milbank urges Democrats not to give Trump a single vote, you might want to check your own senators' voting records on Trump's nominees (NYT gift link). Ballotpedia has a similar list here. My senators, Jeanne Shaheen & Maggie Hassan (NH), have among the most abysmal records: they voted "yes" on 8 of 13 nominees. The worst is John Fetterman (Pa.) who voted "no" on only two of the nominees. Shaheen & Hassan will be hearing from me Monday morning.

“In Reality, Trump Got Rolled.” Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump has made a habit of ginning up crises and then declaring victory when he 'solves' them. We in the media must stop giving this arsonist credit for his firefighting skills. The past two weeks have been fraught with international emergencies of the president’s own making — either problems that he pretends already plague us, or those he manifests into existence. This is the best way to understand his trade-war brinkmanship with Canada and Mexico.... It turns out the trick to negotiating with Trump is to realize he has no idea what the facts are. Thus, Mexican and Canadian leaders offered Trump, as their supposedly painful 'concessions,' promises to do what they’d already been doing.... The White House press secretary characterized these supposed concessions as 'bending the knee' to the United States. In reality, Trump got rolled.... In stoking these fights, Trump has lost the trust of our friends.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo sounds the alarm about Musk's JV squad's taking over highly complex computer systems, developed over decades, which the kidz cannot possibly understand. The the “move fast and break things” modus operandi, as you might suspect, is not made for, say, air traffic control systems. Worth a read. (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “The Trump administration has agreed to keep private a list of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases unless it first provides a two-day head start for the employees to seek a court’s intervention. The agreement between the FBI Agents Association and ... Donald Trump’s Justice Department deescalates, for now, a showdown between the bureau and DOJ after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sought the list. FBI agents sued to prevent its dissemination over fears that Trump appointees intended to publicize the list, potentially putting thousands of FBI officials at risk of reprisal.... The judge’s directive bars the entire federal government — not just the Justice Department — from making any part of the list public without giving two business days’ notice. That would allow attorneys for the FBI personnel to ask the judge for further relief.... Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll initially transmitted a list of 5,000 employees — identified only by ID numbers — to DOJ leadership. Bove subsequently criticized him for 'insubordination.' A full roster with names was sent to DOJ on Thursday, Driscoll said.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gerstein & Cheney are straight reporting here, so missing from the report is the Good-Grief factor. It is just shocking that federal employees -- FBI agents -- have to sue for protection against dangerous acts of retribution contemplated under the authority of the President* of the United States. And why is the POTUS* threatening them: because they did their jobs in compliance with the law and at the direction of their superiors.

⭐Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: “A federal judge issued an emergency order early Saturday prohibiting Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service from accessing personal and financial data on millions of Americans kept at the Treasury Department, noting the possibility for irreparable harm. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer’s decision also ordered Musk and his team to 'immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from Treasury Department’s records and systems, if any.' The conditions are in place until another judge hears arguments on the matter on Feb. 14. The ruling came hours after attorneys general from 19 states sued to stop Musk’s team from dealing with sensitive files during its review of federal payment systems — an unprecedented effort that skirted firm security measures that permitted access to systems only to trained Treasury employees.... [The judge] adopted arguments by the states that Treasury records from the agency’s Bureau of Fiscal Services can only legally be accessed by specialized civil servants 'with a need for access to perform their job duties.' Under the order, the Trump administration is prohibited from giving access to political appointees, special government employees or government employees that are not assigned to the Treasury Department. The White House has said that Musk has been designated a special government employee.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story is here. Politico's story is here. MB: Oh, and a shoutout to Letitia James of New York and the other 18 Democratic state attorneys general who are doing their best to save the nation from a Musk/Trump coup. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It seems to me the order locks out Tom Krause, a Muskie who the Post reports is a brand-new political appointee: ~~~

~~~ ⭐Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Treasury Department is appointing an ally of billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service to a senior position in the department overseeing the nation’s powerful payment systems, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.... Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive with ties to DOGE, will become the financial assistant secretary of the Treasury Department, the people said. He replaces David A. Lebryk, who resigned after objecting to Krause’s demands to stop payments on foreign aid — a measure Lebryk resisted as illegal. Krause’s position will give him control over the Treasury Department system responsible for disbursing more than $5 trillion in annual payments, including for Social Security, Medicare, tax refunds and thousands of other measures. Musk has demanded on social media that Treasury unilaterally stop sending these payments, accusing the department’s career staff of breaking the law. The decision puts Musk’s DOGE in a potential position to make sweeping changes to the federal budget, with implications for tens of millions of Americans.... The move has also touched off broad alarm within the Treasury Department....

“Musk and Vice President JD Vance called on social media Friday for [the] reinstatement [if Marko Elez, a 25-year-old racist acolyte of Musk's]. 'I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,' Vance said.” MB: “The kid”? Way back yesterday Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called him a “highly-trained professional.” (Also linked yesterday.) Politico's story is here. More on Trump/Musk/Vance/Elez below. ~~~

~~~ Musk Ops = “Unprecedented Insider Threat Risk.” Joseph Menn, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Treasury Department was warned in a confidential assessment that U.S. DOGE Service access to a sensitive payment network represented an 'unprecedented insider threat risk,' according to internal correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post. The review, delivered Monday to Treasury officials by a contractor [-- Booz Allen Hamilton --] that runs a threat intelligence center for Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, said that DOGE’s access to the payment network should be 'immediately' suspended. It also urged Treasury to scour the payments system for any changes approved by affiliates of DOGE....

“Late Friday, after this article appeared, Booz Allen said it had 'removed' a subcontractor who wrote the warning and would seek to retract or amend it.... Booz Allen won more than $1 billion in multiyear U.S. government contracts last year. In a separate communication a week ago, a high-ranking career official at Treasury also raised the issue of risks from DOGE access in a memo to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, including the potential breach of information that could lead to exposure of U.S. spies abroad.... The memo included recommendations to mitigate risks, which Bessent approved....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The way to read Booz Allen's impending retraction, IMO, is, "Please, Mr. President Musk, do not cancel our contracts." Anybody with any sense will heed the original threat assessment & dismiss the retraction or amendment as irresponsible, self-serving hoohah.

Marie: I occasionally hear people wishing Trump would just go away, and he may. But be careful what you wish for. Here's Dan Mangan's version of the Vance/Musk/Elez story: ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: “Vice President JD Vance on Friday called for the rehiring of a DOGE staffer who resigned from a sensitive Trump administration post over the exposure of tweets advocating for racism and eugenics. Vance’s call came in a reply to a poll that DOGE chief Elon Musk launched on his social media platform X asking users whether 25-year-old staffer Marko Elez should be rehired to Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency team.... [Musk's 'poll' asked, 'Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?'...] 'Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,' Vance wrote in a tweet. 'We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever,' said Vance, referring to the fact that The Wall Street Journal on Thursday exposed Elez’s connection to an X account that made the inflammatory tweets. 'So I say bring him back,' Vance wrote. 'If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jason Abbruzzese of NBC News: “Elon Musk said Friday that he will bring back a DOGE staff member who resigned after it was found that he had previously made racist remarks online. 'To err is human, to forgive divine,' Musk said in a repost to X of a post from Vice President JD Vance that also supported the staffer's reinstatement.... Donald Trump, when asked about Vance’s response during a news conference, said, 'I’m with the vice president.'... Gavin Kliger, another DOGE staffer, was reported by Rolling Stone to have previously reposted content from Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who has dined with ... Donald Trump.” (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the whole administration is white supremacist: the president*, the other president & the vice president. ~~~

     ~~~ Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: “Elon Musk ... suggested that The Wall Street Journal reporter responsible for uncovering a DOGE employee’s racist tweets should be fired on Friday.... The billionaire asserted that 'She’s a disgusting and cruel person.'... After right-wing influencer Mario Nawfal asserted that 'WOKE JOURNALIST KATHERINE LONG WHO DOXXED DOGE STAFFER HAS TIES TO USAID,' Musk declared that 'She should be fired immediately.' The irony of Musk — a self-proclaimed 'free speech absolutist' — calling for the head of a journalist who accurately reported on a public official’s actions, was not lost on all. “‘I’m a free speech absolutist who thinks reporters should be fired for discovering unflattering information about public officials,”' joked Andrew Fleischman on X.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: Among the members of Musk's "Unsupervised Play Group"TM Maddow -- characterized by our Treasury Secretary as "highly-trained professionals" and who have gain extraordinary access to sensitive federal computer files -- are not just your standard-issue right-wing extremists & bigots: ~~~

~~~ Matt Novak of Gizmodo: “Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s DOGE, was fired from his previous job at a cybersecurity company for leaking company secrets, according to a new report from Bloomberg News. Coristine was an intern at Arizona-based Path Network in 2022 when he was fired for allegedly sharing information about the company with a competing company. 'Edward has been terminated for leaking internal information to the competitors,' a message from June 2022 about the termination seen by Bloomberg News reads.... Bloomberg reports that Coristine bragged on Discord about retaining his access to the company not long after being dismissed. The teenager reportedly said that he had 'access to every single machine' at Path Network.... Coristine has become the butt of constant jokes online for previously using the name Big Balls online, but the young man’s access to America’s most sensitive information is no joke. As Wired noted in an article earlier this week, Path Network is known for hiring reformed blackhat hackers. And Coristine is now reportedly rummaging around the networks of federal agencies.” Here's more from Brian Krebs.

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: “Elon Musk signaled on Friday that he could seek to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as he and his advisers — deputized by ... Donald Trump to cut costs — burrowed into the federal watchdog formed to protect Americans from scams and corporate abuse. Hours later, Trump tapped Russell Vought, his newly confirmed budget chief, to serve as the agency’s acting director, according to a person familiar with the matter.... A longtime Trump ally, Vought helped write Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint in which another contributor called for the elimination of the bureau. Under the banner of the U.S. DOGE Service, Musk’s aides established themselves at the CFPB’s Washington headquarters early Friday. Setting up in a conference room, they began their review of the agency, accessing and parsing its sensitive personnel and financial records.... Their activity unnerved bureau officials.... 'CFPB RIP,' [Musk] posted on X [Friday afternoon]..., along with an emoji of a tombstone.”

⭐David Corn & Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: “Last year, Kash Patel, the MAGA provocateur whom Donald Trump has nominated to head the FBI, received $25,000 from a Russia-linked production company to participate in a documentary in which he assailed the FBI and called for closing its headquarters. In November, Tucker Carlson’s online network released a six-part series ... that purported to chronicle the familiar MAGA conspiracy theory that a Deep State plotted against Donald Trump.... The fourth episode focused on Patel and his years-long crusade to depict the Trump-Russia scandal — Moscow’s attack on the 2016 election and Donald Trump’s efforts to cover up its existence — as nothing but a total hoax orchestrated by nefarious Democrats and rogue government operatives. In this film — which credits Patel as an executive producer — he offers a blistering attack on the FBI. He calls it a 'corrupt' enterprise and claims it has been on the Democratic Party’s 'payroll.'...

“The series was produced ... by Global Tree Pictures, a Los Angeles-based firm run by Ukrainian-American-Russian filmmaker Igor Lopatonok.... Lopatonok has ties to Russian propaganda and disinformation efforts. In recent years, he has helped lead a Kremlin-financed effort to persuade Westerners to move to Russia.” Read on as Corn & Friedman describe how. “according to Patel’s own financial disclosure statement, he pocketed $25,000 from a production company operated by a filmmaker associated with a Kremlin-subsidized propaganda project, a pro-Putin oligarch, and a pro-Kremlin disinformation agent.” ~~~

     ~~~ Gregg Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: “The details surrounding the payment to Patel add to the questions Democratic lawmakers and many veteran national security experts have raised about his nomination. If Patel is confirmed, the agency responsible for defending against Russian espionage operations inside the United States would be led by someone who months earlier had taken money from a perceived ally of the Kremlin.” The story goes into detail about Patel & Lopatonok.

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: “The Justice Department’s newly formed 'Weaponization Working Group,' announced in a memo this week by Attorney General Pam Bondi, was purportedly intended to root out 'abuses of the criminal justice process' by local and federal law enforcement officers. But a literal reading of its name suggests that the investigative body was also an example of the department itself, now under new leadership, weaponizing its expansive powers to scrutinize and perhaps take action against several officials who, for various reasons, have run afoul of ... [Donald] Trump.... The memo, issued on Wednesday, signaled the most significant first step in deploying the levers of government to carry out Mr. Trump’s repeated suggestions to exact retribution against those he perceives to be his enemies....

“The memo ... also included a laundry list of Republican boogeymen and grievances that the working group was intended to address. At the top of that list were three prosecutors who all brought separate cases against Mr. Trump, even though there is no indication that any of them violated the law. They are the former special counsel Jack Smith; Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney; and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.... Ms. Bondi’s memo also directed the working group to look into what it described as the 'improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions' arising from the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Eileen Sullivan, et al., of the New York Times: “Ed Martin was in the mob outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, posting on social media that the violent riot that day was marked by 'faith and joy.' He has often echoed ... [Donald] Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, declaring on the night before the Capitol was stormed that 'true Americans' should work until their 'last breath' to 'stop the steal.' He has spent the past four years raising money for — and in some cases defending — people charged with joining the mob. And when the House committee that investigated Jan. 6 sent him a subpoena, he never complied, risking criminal charges. Now, Mr. Martin, 54, has been tapped by Mr. Trump to oversee the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington where he has been put in charge of dismantling the office’s signature project: the sprawling investigation of Jan. 6 that he has energetically opposed.... He is saddled by an array of potential conflicts arising from his efforts to exonerate Jan. 6 defendants.... Mr. Martin has struggled to win the respect of the hundreds of members of his staff.... Some have described introductory meetings where he made clear that he saw his job as acting on behalf of Mr. Trump.” Read on. Martin's career is one horror story after another.

Oh, Dear. How to Deal with This Would-Be Assassin/“Patriot”? Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: “Edward Kelley wanted revenge after he was arrested and accused of fighting with police and trashing the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He enlisted two friends in a plot to attack the Knoxville, Tennessee, FBI field office that had investigated him. During a meeting with the friends, court records show, he told them, ;With us being such a small group, we will mainly conduct recon missions and assassination missions.' Kelley was convicted of felonies for both the Jan. 6 riot and the December 2022 plot to attack the FBI. But before he could be sentenced in either case..., Donald Trump pardoned nearly all of the 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants. Kelley’s Jan. 6 case has been dismissed. But Kelley, 36, remains in jail as federal prosecutors and a judge grapple with a legal question: How far should Trump’s pardons extend? The pardon order includes everyone 'convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6.' Kelley says his plan to kill FBI agents was related to the Capitol riot, so he should be released immediately.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I guess we'll just have to wait to see if that nice Ed Martin (or Kash Patel??) decides to dismiss the case. Jackman notes that Martin has already filed a motion to dismiss the D.C. case against Kelley.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department has begun restricting access to books and learning materials covering subjects from immigration to psychology in its school system serving U.S. military families, citing the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.... The effort affects curriculums for elementary school ages and up, and follows similar efforts at the U.S. military’s elite academies for prospective military officers. The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) serves about 67,000 students spread across 161 schools at military installations around the globe. A list distributed with the memo details specific chapters from books, or entire books, that are no longer allowed during the compliance review.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Brian Stelter of CNN: “The Washington Post, CNN, The Hill and The War Zone will lose workspace at the Pentagon this year under an expanded 'media rotation program' instituted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s press office. The rotation makes room for a number of right-wing and explicitly pro-Trump media outlets that have not had workspace at the Pentagon before. The Friday night announcement was criticized by some journalists as a way to score political points and penalize tough-minded news outlets.”

Marie: Jennifer Pahlka, a technology officer during the Obama administration, in a New York Times op-ed, makes some cogent points about the snail's pace of federal government action. For instance, she writes, “The intense process of getting a web form approved is required by a law from 1980 (the Paperwork Reduction Act), written when information was gathered on paper, that Congress has not bothered to update for the modern era (aside from extensive revisions in 1995 that made it more cumbersome, not less).” Noting that Musk's DOGE took over the U.S. Digital Service that she helped found, Pahlka argues that “Democrats should make repealing the Paperwork Reduction Act and other barriers like it — such as reforming the current hiring process — a cornerstone of their own deproceduralization agenda, and get off the defensive.” But Pahlka does not seem to understand politics or the GOP or MAGA or Trump or Musk. Updating a 1980 paperwork act nearly a half century later certainly is a must-do, but NOT when such well-meaning efforts would aid and abet the Trump/Musk demolition project.

~~~~~~~~~~

Gary Robertson of the AP: “A North Carolina trial judge on Friday upheld decisions by election officials to reject protests by the trailing candidate in a very close state Supreme Court election who wants tens of thousands of contested ballots removed from the race tallies. In three one-page orders, Superior Court Judge William Pittman affirmed the December rulings of the State Board of Elections. Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs maintains a 734-vote lead over Republican rival Jefferson Griffin after more than 5.5 million ballots were cast and two recounts.... An appeal is likely to reach the state Supreme Court. With Riggs recusing herself from case deliberations, five of the six remaining justices are registered Republicans. Tuesday’s 4th Circuit opinion, however, said that Riggs can return to federal court to plead her case on federal elections and voting rights laws should state court action favor Griffin. Riggs’ supporters, including top Democrats and voters targeted by Griffin’s protests, have said Griffin’s effort to overturn the result ... by disenfranchising eligible voters is an outrageous attack on free elections.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Canada. Trudeau Takes Trump's Threats Seriously. Vjosa Isai of the New York Times: “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Friday made his first comments in response to ... [Donald] Trump’s repeated statements that he wants to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. Mr. Trudeau made clear that he did not regard Mr. Trump’s statements as having been in made in jest and believes annexation is something Canada needs to treat as a serious threat. And he believes he knows why Mr. Trump covets Canada. 'I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,' Mr. Trudeau told a gathering of company executives and business leaders in Toronto, according to people in the room who listened to his comments. The news media had been asked to leave the room at the time Mr. Trudeau delivered his comments, but at least two news outlets, The Toronto Star and the CBC, were able to hear them and record them. Mr. Trudeau’s office declined to provide details of what the prime minister said.” Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Israel, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here: “Hamas released three Israeli hostages on Saturday as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a staged handover in which the armed group prodded the captives to give short speeches thanking the militants who had held them captive for more than a year. The three men — Eli Sharabi, 52; Or Levy, 34; and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 — appeared frail and gaunt. One of them, speaking Hebrew, thanked Hamas fighters for 'protecting' him and called for the Israeli government to end the war in remarks effectively delivered at gunpoint. The scene horrified Israelis and could spur further public pressure on the Israeli government to make more concessions to bring the remaining hostages home.... After the hostage handover, Israel began releasing some of about 180 Palestinian prisoners expected to be freed on Saturday in exchange for the three hostages.”

The Conversation -- February 7, 2025

⭐Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Treasury Department is appointing an ally of billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service to a senior position in the department overseeing the nation’s powerful payment systems, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.... Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive with ties to DOGE, will become the financial assistant secretary of the Treasury Department, the people said. He replaces David A. Lebryk, who resigned after objecting to Krause’s demands to stop payments on foreign aid — a measure Lebryk resisted as illegal. Krause’s position will give him control over the Treasury Department system responsible for disbursing more than $5 trillion in annual payments, including for Social Security, Medicare, tax refunds and thousands of other measures. Musk has demanded on social media that Treasury unilaterally stop sending these payments, accusing the department’s career staff of breaking the law. The decision puts Musk’s DOGE in a potential position to make sweeping changes to the federal budget, with implications for tens of millions of Americans.... The move has also touched off broad alarm within the Treasury Department....

“Musk and Vice President JD Vance called on social media Friday for [the] reinstatement [if Marko Elez, a 25-year-old racist acolyte of Musk's]. 'I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,' Vance said.” MB: “The kid”? Way back yesterday Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called him a “highly-trained professional.” (See first Rachel Maddow video below.)

Marie: I occasionally hear people wishing Trump would just go away, and he may. But be careful what you wish for. Here's Dan Mangan's version of the Vance/Musk/Elez story: ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: “Vice President JD Vance on Friday called for the rehiring of a DOGE staffer who resigned from a sensitive Trump administration post over the exposure of tweets advocating for racism and eugenics. Vance’s call came in a reply to a poll that DOGE chief Elon Musk launched on his social media platform X asking users whether 25-year-old staffer Marko Elez should be rehired to Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency team.... [Musk's 'poll' asked, 'Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?'...] 'Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,' Vance wrote in a tweet. 'We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever,' said Vance, referring to the fact that The Wall Street Journal on Thursday exposed Elez’s connection to an X account that made the inflammatory tweets. 'So I say bring him back,' Vance wrote. 'If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jason Abbruzzese of NBC News: “Elon Musk said Friday that he will bring back a DOGE staff member who resigned after it was found that he had previously made racist remarks online. 'To err is human, to forgive divine,' Musk said in a repost to X of a post from Vice President JD Vance that also supported the staffer's reinstatement.... Donald Trump, when asked about Vance’s response during a news conference, said, 'I’m with the vice president.'... Gavin Kliger, another DOGE staffer, was reported by Rolling Stone to have previously reposted content from Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who has dined with ... Donald Trump.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the whole administration is white supremacist: the president*, the other president & the vice president. ~~~

     ~~~ Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: “Elon Musk ... suggested that The Wall Street Journal reporter responsible for uncovering a DOGE employee’s racist tweets should be fired on Friday.... The billionaire asserted that 'She’s a disgusting and cruel person.'... After right-wing influencer Mario Nawfal asserted that 'WOKE JOURNALIST KATHERINE LONG WHO DOXXED DOGE STAFFER HAS TIES TO USAID,' Musk declared that 'She should be fired immediately.' The irony of Musk — a self-proclaimed 'free speech absolutist' — calling for the head of a journalist who accurately reported on a public official’s actions, was not lost on all. “‘I’m a free speech absolutist who thinks reporters should be fired for discovering unflattering information about public officials,”' joked Andrew Fleischman on X.”

Once a Criminal, Always a Criminal. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “So, here’s a shocker: It turns out that, if you elect a felon as president of the United States, he will continue to break laws once he’s in office.... [Arguably,] the new administration over the course of the last fortnight has violated each of the following laws....  The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024. The Administrative Leave Act of 2016. The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. The Inspector General Act of 1978. The Privacy Act of 1974. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. The Public Health Service Act 1944. The Antideficiency Act of 1870....

“And those don’t include the ways in which Trump already appears to be in violation of the Constitution: The First Amendment’s protections of free speech and association; the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection and due process; the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment; the 14th Amendment’s promise of birthright citizenship; Article I’s spending, presentment, appropriations and bicameralism clauses; Article II’s take-care clause; and the separation of powers generally.” Milbank urges Democrats not to give Trump a single vote. MB: That means you, too, John Fetterman. The link above is supposed to be a gift link. If it fails, please let me know.

Trudeau Takes Trump's Threats Seriously. Vjosa Isai of the New York Times: “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Friday made his first comments in response to ... [Donald] Trump’s repeated statements that he wants to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. Mr. Trudeau made clear that he did not regard Mr. Trump’s statements as having been in made in jest and believes annexation is something Canada needs to treat as a serious threat. And he believes he knows why Mr. Trump covets Canada. 'I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,' Mr. Trudeau told a gathering of company executives and business leaders in Toronto, according to people in the room who listened to his comments. The news media had been asked to leave the room at the time Mr. Trudeau delivered his comments, but at least two news outlets, The Toronto Star and the CBC, were able to hear them and record them. Mr. Trudeau’s office declined to provide details of what the prime minister said.” Politico's story is here.

“In Reality, Trump Got Rolled.” Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump has made a habit of ginning up crises and then declaring victory when he 'solves' them. We in the media must stop giving this arsonist credit for his firefighting skills. The past two weeks have been fraught with international emergencies of the president’s own making — either problems that he pretends already plague us, or those he manifests into existence. This is the best way to understand his trade-war brinkmanship with Canada and Mexico.... It turns out the trick to negotiating with Trump is to realize he has no idea what the facts are. Thus, Mexican and Canadian leaders offered Trump, as their supposedly painful 'concessions,' promises to do what they’d already been doing.... The White House press secretary characterized these supposed concessions as 'bending the knee' to the United States. In reality, Trump got rolled.... In stoking these fights, Trump has lost the trust of our friends.”

Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo sounds the alarm about Musk's JV squad's taking over highly complex computer systems, developed over decades, which the kidz cannot possibly understand. The the “move fast and break things” modus operandi, as you might suspect, is not made for, say, air traffic control systems. Worth a read.

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “The Trump administration has agreed to keep private a list of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases unless it first provides a two-day head start for the employees to seek a court’s intervention. The agreement between the FBI Agents Association and ... Donald Trump’s Justice Department deescalates, for now, a showdown between the bureau and DOJ after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sought the list. FBI agents sued to prevent its dissemination over fears that Trump appointees intended to publicize the list, potentially putting thousands of FBI officials at risk of reprisal. The 'consent order,' adopted by U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb Friday afternoon, lacks a safeguard FBI employees’ lawyers were asking for during a court hearing Thursday: A restriction on passing the information from the Justice Department to other agencies or the White House. But the judge’s directive bars the entire federal government — not just the Justice Department — from making any part of the list public without giving two business days’ notice. That would allow attorneys for the FBI personnel to ask the judge for further relief.... Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll initially transmitted a list of 5,000 employees — identified only by ID numbers — to DOJ leadership. Bove subsequently criticized him for 'insubordination.' A full roster with names was sent to DOJ on Thursday, Driscoll said.”

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department has begun restricting access to books and learning materials covering subjects from immigration to psychology in its school system serving U.S. military families, citing the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.... The effort affects curriculums for elementary school ages and up, and follows similar efforts at the U.S. military’s elite academies for prospective military officers. The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) serves about 67,000 students spread across 161 schools at military installations around the globe. A list distributed with the memo details specific chapters from books, or entire books, that are no longer allowed during the compliance review.”

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: “The Justice Department’s newly formed 'Weaponization Working Group,' announced in a memo this week by Attorney General Pam Bondi, was purportedly intended to root out 'abuses of the criminal justice process' by local and federal law enforcement officers. But a literal reading of its name suggests that the investigative body was also an example of the department itself, now under new leadership, weaponizing its expansive powers to scrutinize and perhaps take action against several officials who, for various reasons, have run afoul of ... [Donald] Trump.... The memo, issued on Wednesday, signaled the most significant first step in deploying the levers of government to carry out Mr. Trump’s repeated suggestions to exact retribution against those he perceives to be his enemies....

“The memo ... also included a laundry list of Republican boogeymen and grievances that the working group was intended to address. At the top of that list were three prosecutors who all brought separate cases against Mr. Trump, even though there is no indication that any of them violated the law. They are the former special counsel Jack Smith; Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney; and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.... Ms. Bondi’s memo also directed the working group to look into what it described as the 'improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions' arising from the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

~~~~~~~~~~

New York Times reporter suggests Donald Trump is a phony and is not the "changed man" he claims to be after "God saved him" from an assassin's bullet: ~~~

~~~ “Trump Pauses Online Tirade to Preach Unity.” Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “Of all the many forms Donald J. Trump can take, maybe the most perplexing one is Pious Trump. It is a shape he shifted into shortly after 8 o’clock on Thursday morning to deliver a sermon of sorts on Capitol Hill for the annual National Prayer Breakfast. In the grand amphitheater of National Statuary Hall, members of Congress [-- Republicans and Democrats --] sat before him. 'Look at each other,' he urged. He said they were a 'great group of people' and beseeched them to come together. 'We have to make life better for everyone,' he said.... This was somewhat amazing, since the various other forms of Mr. Trump happened to be running around with flamethrowers earlier that morning, torching the federal bureaucracy, the global order, the media, the opposition party in the room and even the messaging coming out of his own White House.

“Just before his arrival at the Capitol to preach unity, he had gone on a fiery posting spree. He demanded that CBS lose its broadcasting license. He trumpeted a baseless conspiracy theory that Democrats had 'STOLLEN' billions of dollars from the [U.S.A.I.D.] to pay off media outlets for slanted coverage. 'DEMOCRATS CAN’T HIDE FROM THIS ONE,' he wrote. 'TOO BIG, TOO DIRTY!' In another post a few minutes before that one, he elaborated upon his desire to grab the Gaza Strip, an idea that drew bipartisan condemnation and shocked even his own staff, who tried to clean it up yesterday, evidently to no avail. He described Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, pejoratively as a Palestinian.” ~~~

Rather than protecting religious beliefs, this ['anti-Christian bias'] task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination and the subversion of our civil rights laws. If Trump really cared about religious freedom and ending religious persecution, he’d be addressing antisemitism in his inner circle, anti-Muslim bigotry, hate crimes against people of color and other religious minorities. -- Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a statement ~~~

~~~ Erica Green of the New York Times: Donald “Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at eradicating 'anti-Christian bias' in the federal government by having agencies review policies and practices that he says have tried to squelch religious activities and activism. Mr. Trump, who announced the order at the National Prayer Breakfast, appointed his new attorney general, Pam Bondi, to lead a task force at the Justice Department to spearhead the effort. Mr. Trump said the task force would 'fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society' and 'move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.'”

Erica Green of the New York Times: Donald “Trump signed an executive order on Thursday placing sanctions on the International Criminal Court, saying that his administration would 'impose tangible and significant consequences' on people who work on investigations that threaten the national security of the United States and its allies, including Israel. The court faced backlash from the U.S. and Israel in November over its decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the course of its conflict with Hamas in Gaza.” ~~~

     ~~~ Aitor Hernández-Morales of Politico: “European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa on Friday blasted ... Donald Trump’s decision to impose aggressive economic sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). In their first swipe at the new U.S. administration, the EU heavyweights said Trump’s move weakened justice at a global level.”

Lauren Hirsch, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump met this week with the PGA Tour commissioner, the tour said on Thursday, as the Justice Department considers whether to approve a venture between the United States’ premier golf circuit and one backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.... In addition to the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, Mr. Trump hosted Adam Scott, who won the Masters Tournament in 2013 and sits on the PGA Tour's board. During the Oval Office meeting, Mr. Trump also spoke by telephone with Yasir al-Rumayyan, the Saudi wealth fund’s governor and one of the most influential figures in Saudi Arabia.... Mr. Trump, stung by the professional golf establishment’s distancing itself from him after his entry into politics, has been one of [the LIV's] most steadfast supporters and one of its most essential vendors.” MB: So no conflict of interest, amirite? Oh wait, the POTUS* can do no wrong, s/Supreme Friends of Trump

Am! Are Not! Am Too! Aaron Boxerman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Thursday defended his proposal for the United States to take charge of postwar Gaza and resettle its Palestinian residents, but stressed that he would not deploy U.S. troops to the enclave, as Israel’s defense minister announced that he had ordered the military to draft a plan to allow people to voluntarily leave. The developments add to a swirl of confusion over the proposal by Mr. Trump to 'take over' the Gaza Strip and for the roughly two million Palestinians living there to move elsewhere. The forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international humanitarian law, a war crime and a crime against humanity, experts say. Mr. Trump’s plan has already provoked furious opposition around the world, with some critics likening it to ethnic cleansing.... Some of Mr. Trump’s aides had sought to soften the president’s ideas on Wednesday evening. But in an early morning social media post, Mr. Trump doubled down, saying that the United States and its partners were prepared to build 'one of the greatest and most spectacular developments' on the planet in Gaza once Israel ceded control there.” (Also linked yesterday.)

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: “A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blasted ... Donald Trump’s commitment to the rule of law, saying he is trampling the Constitution to pursue 'political or personal gain.' U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour offered his commentary while becoming the second federal judge in two days to issue a nationwide injunction that blocks the Trump administration from moving forward on an executive order aimed at curbing birthright citizenship. Coughenour had eviscerated the executive order as 'blatantly unconstitutional' during a hearing two weeks ago in the lawsuit brought by a coalition of four Democratic-led states. In Thursday’s court session, Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, criticized Trump in direct and unsparing terms moments after Justice Department lawyers had finished arguing that the order was constitutional.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “Ellen L. Weintraub, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, said on Thursday that ... [Donald] Trump had moved to fire her. Ms. Weintraub, who has served as a Democratic commissioner on the bipartisan panel since 2002, posted a short letter signed by Mr. Trump on social media that said she was 'hereby removed' from the commission effective immediately. She said in an interview that she did not see the president’s move as legally valid, and that she was considering her options on how to respond. 'There’s a perfectly legal way for him to replace me,' Ms. Weintraub said on Thursday evening. 'But just flat-out firing me, that is not it.'... A commissioner is removed only after a replacement is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and Ms. Weintraub said that the president did not have the power to force her off the commission before that. Trevor Potter, a former commissioner and chairman of the commission nominated by President George H.W. Bush, denounced the move to fire Ms. Weintraub in a statement, saying that doing so would violate constitutional separation of powers.” The Hill's story is here.

David Bauder of the AP: “Federal government payments to news outlets like Politico, The New York Times and The Associated Press for subscriptions or to license content are in the crosshairs of Trump administration spending hawks, with the president on Thursday calling it potentially 'THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL.' By linking federal government spending to the media, Trump has bundled two of his long-favored political targets into one rhetorical package — denouncing a common practice as untoward while offering no supporting evidence for his assertions. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the government had paid more than $8 million for Politico subscriptions and that Elon Musk’s government efficiency team 'is working on canceling those payments.'... It has not been unusual for governments, federal and state, to subscribe to major media outlets to keep up on important or strategic issues.... The New York Times said it earned less than $2 million last year through government subscriptions, which are offered at a discounted rate. Through one arrangement, the Times gives access to more than 1 million active and retired military members and their families.” ~~~

     ~~~ Christian Paz of Vox explains the non-scandal SCANDAL: “The nation’s governance is increasingly at the whim of online conspiracy theorists.... None of [the facts, which Paz lays out] seemed to matter to [Elon] Musk, who quickly encountered these online conspiracies and responded that he’d shut down the payments. The Tesla CEO spent much of the rest of the day on X reposting and amplifying posts about government payments to news organizations, NGOs, and nonprofits — and eventually, the conspiracies made their way to the White House.... All it took was a few posts for Musk, who now seems to wield limitless power in the federal bureaucracy, to launch a new crackdown, and now at least one federal department, the US Department of Agriculture, is complying and stopping payments, according to independent journalist Marisa Kabas. Another, the General Services Administration, is being ordered to cancel 'every single media contract' the agency expenses, including Politico, its subsidiaries, and the BBC, per Axios.” ~~~

     ~~~ Erik Wemple of the Washington Post weighs in: “The events that befell Politico on Wednesday couldn’t have materialized in a functional country.”

Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Federal Aviation Administration is slowing flights into Reagan National Airport, a safety measure taken as members of Congress demand answers about last week’s deadly crash and ... Donald Trump and Elon Musk promise a rapid overhaul of aviation technology.... At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning, Trump promised a 'great, computerized system' of air traffic control, something 'brand new … done by two or three companies.' Musk chimed in on his social media platform X with a promise to 'make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.' Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and [Sen. Ted] Cruz [R-Texas] both said they welcomed Musk’s involvement given his experience running the rocket company SpaceX. 'One of the top technology CEOs on planet Earth is available,' Cruz told reporters. 'I think that is a real opportunity.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, Mr. Trump. You mean air traffic control is going to get a computerized system? Really new-fangled, Donald. The air traffic controllers must be all agog at the very thought of it.

Marie: So maybe you're a little concerned that Elon and His Little Rascals are messing with air traffic control and all the Republicans think that's great. Wait, wait, they're into nuclear weapons, too! ~~~

~~~ Ella Nilsen of CNN: “A representative from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was granted access to the Energy Department’s IT system on Wednesday by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, two people with knowledge of the situation told CNN. Wright granted access to DOGE representative Luke Farritor — a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern — even over objections from members of the department’s general counsel and chief information offices, the people told CNN. The DOE chief information office is the department’s IT and cybersecurity office. Members of the general counsel and chief information offices 'said this is a bad idea' because Farritor hadn’t had a standard background investigation needed to access the department’s system, one of the people told CNN.... In addition to DOGE presence in the building, Energy Department employees — including the National Nuclear Security Administration — have received the so-called buyout emails that employees in many other agencies have been receiving.”

Don't Worry About Elon -- He's So Ethical, He's Policing Himself. Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: “White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that Elon Musk ... is in charge of excusing himself when he comes across conflicts of interest pertaining to his businesses during the White House press briefing on Wednesday. 'The president was already asked and answered this question this week, and he said if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,' answered Leavitt. 'And he has again abided by all applicable laws.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

It is against the law. -- Elon Musk, on X, on news outlets revealing the names of his Boyz Club ~~~

Marie: A few days ago, Maggie Dupre of Futurism reported, "Elon Musk is really, really mad that journalists at Wired revealed the names of a cohort of extremely young engineers he's tasked with firing federal employees, assisting in dismantling congressionally-created agencies like USAID, and clomping through the federal government's wide-ranging and sensitive troves of data.... Musk has spent the last day or so decrying the naming of the young employees, who do not come from government backgrounds and reportedly range in age between 19 and 25, as illegal and even worthy of prosecution.... But journalists revealing the names and ages of the young men now knees-deep in a widely decried and possibly illegal romp into the infrastructure of our government is baseline transparency. Especially because, again, DOGE is not even a real government agency, and currently seems to be enjoying little to no guardrails or oversight.... Musk himself has a well-documented history of singling out specific federal employees by name, promoting an X post as recently as November that shared the name of a federal employee singled out for her work in 'climate diversification' — and, as a result, launched a throng of woefully ill-informed harassment her way." ~~~

     ~~~ But, in fairness to Elon, you can see why he is "really, really mad" that journalists found out the names of his incel team. Because lookie what happened next. ~~~

~~~ Bobby Allyn & Shannon Bond of NPR: "A staffer connected to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency resigned on Thursday after now-deleted racist social media posts were resurfaced.... Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer, was working inside the Treasury Department.... Elez, who formerly worked at Musk companies X and SpaceX, was one of two temporary appointees at Treasury connected to DOGE who have been granted access to a highly sensitive Treasury system that processes trillions of dollars in payments every year. The Wall Street Journal reported on a number of 2024 posts from an account connected to Elez on Musk's X platform.... 'You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,' the account wrote in September. 'Normalize Indian hate,' a separate post from that month read. In July of last year, the account posted: 'Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.' In other posts, from December, the account pushed for repealing the Civil Rights Act and shared: 'I just want a eugenic immigration policy, is that too much to ask.'... Elez had recently been appointed a special government employee at the Treasury, the government told the federal judge hearing the case this week.... Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the DOGE team on Bloomberg Television on Thursday, saying the unit consists of trained professionals." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Speaking of Marko Elez, who apparently fancies himself a White Boy possessed of very superior White Boy genes, a line in the following report stood out. ~~~

     ~~~ Emily Singer of Daily Kos: “A federal judge limited co-President Elon Musk and his army of teenage Department of Government Efficiency minions' access to the Treasury Department's payment systems Thursday in response to a group of unions’ lawsuit alleging that DOGE's access violated the Privacy Act of 1974. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s order said that Treasury Department employees will block Musk and other DOGE workers' access 'to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.' The order does, however, allow 'read only" access of the payment systems to two 'special government employees' who have ties to Musk: Tom Krause, the chief executive of Cloud Software Group Inc., and Marko Elez, a 25-year-old engineer.... Krause and Elez were assigned to the Treasury Department through DOGE, and reportedly 'passed government background checks and obtained the necessary security clearances,' The New York Times reported on Feb. 1.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Who conducted what kind of security check that missed Marko's eugenics musings? If the WSJ could find Marko's X account in a day or two, why couldn't those supposed security checkers? Or did they learn about Marko's rampant racism and shrug? ~~~

~~~ And this: ~~~

Olivia George, et al., of the Washington Post: “A federal judge in Massachusetts paused the deadline for the Trump administration’s buyout program for federal workers Thursday afternoon, two days after unions representing more than 800,000 federal workers asked the court to halt the program, calling it an 'arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum.' U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. set another hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. for full arguments.” (Also linked yesterday.) The ABC News story is here.

Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: “Agents of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have gained access to highly restricted government records on millions of federal employees — including Treasury and State Department officials in sensitive security positions — as part of a broader effort to gain control over the government’s main personnel agency, according to four U.S. officials with knowledge of the developments. The officials ... expressed alarm about potential breaches or abuses of such records by members of an administration whose senior-most officials, including ... Donald Trump, have threatened to retaliate against federal workers accused of disloyalty. The records maintained by the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, amount to a repository of sensitive information about employees of most federal agencies — including addresses, demographic profiles, salary details and disciplinary histories. The moves at the OPM by members of Musk’s pseudo-governmental DOGE have coincided with similar efforts to gain access to sensitive systems at other agencies....” (Also linked yesterday.)

Shelby Talcott of Semafor: "The Social Security Administration is an upcoming focus of the Department of Government Efficiency, a source with knowledge of its work told Semafor, and one person involved in DOGE is currently preparing to work with the agency that provides benefits to the elderly and disabled.... DOGE’s interest in trying to root out fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, and perhaps soon in cutting at the Social Security Administration, suggests that government programs once seen as untouchable may be on the table."

Well, everything's going according to plan over there at Pete's Department of Defense of White Men & Drinking Society. ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Campos in LG&$ digs up a memo, via Ken Klippenstein, from DOD Defense Intelligence Agency (a misnomer if there ever was one) instructing all DIA personnel to immediately suspend all those nasty DEI observances, like MLK Jr. Day, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pride Day & Women's Equality Day. Two of the now-very-unspecial days -- MLK L. Day & Juneteenth -- are national holidays, so I'm not sure how DIA personnel will get around observing those. But I'm sure they can be flexible! Meanwhile, the Navy is cancelling all sexual assault prevention & response training, because, I don't know, women and gays or something. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Shannon Osaka & Jake Spring of the Washington Post: “In a memo released Thursday, the Federal Highway Administration ordered states to halt a $5 billion program to build fast EV chargers on highways nationwide — an initiative that ... Donald Trump cited as an example of the 'Green New Deal.' The letter informs state transportation directors ... that any plans approved by the Biden administration are now suspended until the Transportation Department provides new guidelines in the spring.... The order, which comes as many states are still working to build out their public chargers..., could strike a major blow to an industry that has experienced slower-than-expected sales and could lose critical federal tax incentives in coming months. On Wednesday, Ford Motor Co. projected it could lose as much as $5.5 billion this year on its EV and software business.... Tesla [-- whose CEO is Elon Musk --] has been a key recipient of charging grants, and it has the largest fast-charger network in the country.”

Hannah Natanson, et al., of the Washington Post: “Representatives from Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service have fed sensitive data from across the Education Department into artificial intelligence software to probe the agency’s programs and spending, according to two people with knowledge of the DOGE team’s actions. The AI probe includes data with personally identifiable information for people who manage grants, as well as sensitive internal financial data.... The DOGE team is using AI software accessed through Microsoft’s cloud computing service Azure to pore over every dollar of money the department disburses.... At the Education Department, DOGE’s team aims to radically reduce spending and ultimately shrink the department and its staff, the people said — helping further the Trump administration’s push to get rid of it entirely. The DOGE team plans to replicate this process across many departments and agencies, accessing the back-end software at different parts of the government and then using AI technology to extract and sift through information....”

Maxine Joselow & Amudalet Ajasa of the Washington Post: “... Trump appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency notified staff members that they plan to close the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights and place 168 of its employees on administrative leave, according to agency officials. The tumult has also engulfed the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, a little-known yet crucial office tasked with defending the federal government’s environmental actions in court. Trump appointees recently announced plans to fire about 20 employees at the division, among other actions that have sent morale there plummeting....

“And as one of her first acts after being sworn in as the nation’s 87th attorney general Wednesday, Pam Bondi rescinded former attorney general Merrick Garland’s directives on environmental justice, according to a memorandum obtained by The Washington Post. Bondi also directed the heads of all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to revoke any 'memoranda, guidance, or similar directive that implement the prior administration’s “environmental justice” agenda.'”

Oh, “Rank Insubordination,” Is It, Marco? Karoon Demirjian & Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: “The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development from more than 10,000 to about 290 positions, three people with knowledge of the plans said on Thursday. The small remaining staff includes employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance.... U.S.A.I.D. officials were also told on Thursday that about 800 awards and contracts administered through the agency were being canceled.... The moves also came just one day before almost all of the agency’s direct hires, including its roster of Foreign Service officers, will be put on indefinite administrative leave. In addition, almost all contractors will see their work orders terminated. Foreign Service officers will have 30 days to return to the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who took control of U.S.A.I.D. as acting administrator on Monday, insisted during a Fox News interview this week that the takeover was 'not about getting rid of foreign aid....  But now we have rank insubordination,' he said, adding that U.S.A.I.D. employees had been 'completely uncooperative, so we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.'” An AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Pardon my lack of imagination, but I have a hard time picturing healthcare workers and food distributors and disaster relief workers of rising up against their bosses and showing "rank insubordination" without cause. ~~~

~~~ Shannon Bond, et al., of NPR: "Unions representing foreign service officers and federal employees at the United States Agency for International Development are suing the Trump administration to halt efforts to dismantle the agency and freeze foreign aid.... The lawsuit argues only Congress can dissolve the agency and calls the Trump administration's actions 'unconstitutional and illegal.' The unions are asking the court to block efforts to shut down USAID operations and put staff on leave, to restore funding and to reopen the agency's offices." ~~~

~~~ Missy Ryan, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s abrupt decision to repatriate the U.S. Agency for International Development’s overseas workforce has thrust the agency’s global staff into chaos and despair, as workers scramble to uproot their lives and brace for what they fear will be a shutdown of all American aid missions in 30 days.... These employees, some assigned to dangerous 'hardship' posts, are attempting to navigate that process with little information from the Trump administration and while many are locked out of all agency computer systems.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Read through this report, and see if you think these aid workers seem like people who showed in "rank insubordination," or as Elon Musk asserted, were participating in a "criminal" organization. ~~~

~~~ Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development ... threatens billions of dollars the agency spends on American businesses and organizations, global development experts and industry representatives told The Washington Post.... Billions of [USAID] dollars flowed back into the American economy until ... Donald Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on foreign-aid spending last month. Now U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo. That includes American farms, which supply about 41 percent of the food aid that the agency, working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sends around the world each year, according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service.” MB: I'll bet many farmers affected by the dismantling of USAID voted for Trump. Trump promised to break everything, and they didn't think he meant them, too. ~~~

~~~ Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: “Private-sector employers and nonprofits are starting to lay off workers as a result of the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts and funding freezes, unleashing a wave of job losses that economists say could pick up steam in the coming weeks, threatening the broader labor market.... More than 7.5 million Americans work in jobs directly connected to the federal government, according to the Brookings Institution, as contractors or grant workers — some of whom are already out of a job. And there are millions more who work in positions indirectly connected to federal funding delays.... Still, the labor market remains strong, and economists say it could take weeks or months before government-related job losses show up in national data.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: “... dozens ... [of clinical trials] have been abruptly frozen, leaving people around the world with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies, cut off from the researchers who were monitoring them, and generating waves of suspicion and fear. The State Department, which now oversees U.S.A.I.D., replied to a request for comment by directing a reporter to USAID.gov, which no longer contains any information except that all permanent employees have been placed on administrative leave. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the agency is wasteful and advances a liberal agenda that is counter to ... [Donald] Trump’s foreign policy. In interviews, scientists — who are forbidden by the terms of the stop-work order to speak with the news media — described agonizing choices: violate the stop-work orders and continue to care for trial volunteers, or leave them alone to face potential side effects and harm.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: “As the Trump administration this week dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development..., the White House issued a statement justifying its actions. Titled 'At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep,' the news release claimed USAID 'has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.' The news release then listed 12 examples, plucked from the websites of right-wing media. But the numbers cited — as low as $32,000 — hardly justify the claim that these are 'massive sums' of money. In fact, they are so low that some of the funds appear to have been awarded at the ambassador level, without Washington involvement. At least one dated from the first Trump administration, and some were actually State Department grants, not USAID.... Only one claim — out of 12 — was accurate.”

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: “The Senate voted along party lines on Thursday to confirm Russell T. Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, putting in place one of the most powerful architects of ... [Donald] Trump’s agenda to upend the federal bureaucracy and slash spending that the administration thinks is wasteful. The 53-to-47 vote returns Mr. Vought to the White House budget office that he also led during Mr. Trump’s first term.... Mr. Vought emerged as one of Mr. Trump’s most contentious nominees, drawing intense backlash from Senate Democrats who described him as a lawless ideologue. They used every legislative tool at their disposal to delay his confirmation vote, commandeering the Senate floor on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning to make the case against him.... During his confirmation hearing last month, Mr. Vought dodged questions about whether Mr. Trump would follow the will of Congress, which authorizes federal spending, but made clear that Mr. Trump intended to test the law.”

Juliet Macur of the New York Times: “Transgender women will be barred from competing in N.C.A.A. women’s college sports, the sports organization announced on Thursday, a day after ... [Donald] Trump effectively forced the decision by reversing federal policy. That decision, effective immediately, followed Mr. Trump’s signing of an executive order asking his agencies to withdraw federal funding from educational institutions if they defied him and let transgender girls and women compete.... The N.C.A.A.’s previous policy on transgender athletes left the decision up to each sport’s national governing body. The rules varied by sport, especially as to how much testosterone could remain in a transgender woman’s blood following hormone therapy.”

I don’t think that Americans have accepted that anyone should be above the law in America. Our equality as people was the foundation of our society and of our constitution. -- Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaking in Louisville, Kentucky ~~~

~~~ Bruce Schreiner of the AP: “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said her conservative colleagues are risking the court’s legitmacy with decisions affording ... Donald Trump broad immunity and overturning longstanding precedents on other issues. In her first public comments since Trump began his second term in the White House, Sotomayor told a Kentucky audience that the court has gone too far, too fast on a range of issues. She cited the Trump case during a lengthy response to a question about sagging public confidence in the court. Sotomayor issued a stinging dissent in that case, and she didn’t hold back Wednesday night in discussing public perceptions of the court following its historic 6-3 decision on the immunity question. The court’s conservative majority, with three justices appointed by Trump in his first term, ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Texas. Robert Downen of the Texas Tribune: "A Houston man who was recently pardoned by ... Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has been arrested on an outstanding child sex crimes charge. Andrew Taake, 36, was taken into custody on Thursday after spending more than two weeks as a fugitive, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said. He had previously been charged with online solicitation of a minor stemming from a 2016 incident in which he allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to an undercover law enforcement officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl. Taake was among the roughly 1,600 people, including 120 Texans, who were charged for their roles in the U.S. Capitol riot, which ultimately resulted in five deaths, injuries to 140 police officers, at least $2.8 million in damage and roughly 1,575 federal criminal cases." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is not the first story you've seen and it won't be the last about unrelated law-breaking & alleged law-breaking by criminals Donald Trump pardoned. Criminal supporters of Donald Trump often are not just criminals for a day. Criming, in its varied forms, is what they do.

~~~~~~~~~~

Panama. Malu Cursino of BBC News: "Panama has denied making changes to allow US government vessels to transit the Panama Canal for free, following White House claims it had agreed to such a move. The State Department said in a statement on X that its government vessels 'can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year'. Responding to the comments, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said it was 'empowered to set tolls and other fees for transiting the canal,' adding that it had 'not made any adjustments to them'." Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

CNBC: “Job creation was lower than expected in January, though the unemployment rate edged down and worker wages rose sharply, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls climbed by a seasonally adjusted 143,000 for the month, down from an upwardly revised 307,000 in December and below the 169,000 forecast from Dow Jones. The unemployment rate nudged lower to 4%. The report also featured significant benchmark revisions to the 2024 totals that saw substantial downward changes to the previous payrolls level though upward revisions to those who reported holding jobs.”