Extra, Extra
Don’t Doge Reality: “Purging progressive influence. Musk-style corporate restructuring. Public relations strategy for spending cuts. Legal challenge to expand executive power. Political cover for fiscal policy.” The DOGE cuts are about a lot. What they’re not about is saving significant money. FT: Doge’s actual impact is less than $10bn. Meanwhile, from Wired (the publication providing the best DOGE coverage): Some DOGE Staffers Are Drawing Six-Figure Government Salaries. What DOGE is also doing is punishing people who have dedicated themselves to working for the federal government. Even the parts of the federal government that people love. Defector: Why Bully The National Park Service? “In an email sent down the chain by a Department of Interior Regional Finance Officer and viewed by Defector, agency administrative officers were alerted that “the spending threshold for all purchase and travel cards” would be reset the following day, to a new maximum of one dollar.”
+ Star Linkup: Not everyone is losing money with all the administration’s changes. Elon Musk Is About to Make Bank Thanks to Trump’s Internet Overhaul. Someone is coming out the winner when it comes to all the Panama Canal talk, too. BlackRock’s Panama Canal deal is latest win for chief Larry Fink’s strong start to Trump era.
+ Pay Day: “The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday reined in some of the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to eliminate foreign aid that has been authorized by Congress.” So far, they’re only required to pay for work that has already been done. Supreme Court upholds a lower court order to force USAID to pay contractors.
+ Idaho Torpedo: “The Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was originally filed by the Biden administration [which] had argued that emergency-room doctors treating pregnant women had to provide terminations if necessary in Idaho, which has one of the country’s strictest abortion bans.” Trump administration moves to drop Idaho emergency abortion case with national implications.
+ Net Loss: “Among the main reasons for a Hamas military build-up before the attacks, an eight-page public summary of the report listed an Israeli ‘policy of quiet’ towards the group, apparently referring to a policy of restraint in the use of force to keep Hamas’s military capability in check. It also listed Netanyahu’s acquiescence in the flow of funds from Qatar to Gaza, a policy designed to divide Palestinians by boosting Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian state.” Israel’s Shin Bet says Netanyahu policies helped pave way for 7 October. Meanwhile. The US is holding secret talks with Hamas. (Hopefully this goes better than the last time Trump negotiated with terrorists.)
+ I’m OK, You’re OKKK: “Arellano’s article focused on the KKK’s place in Anaheim city politics a century ago. The AI-generated alternate viewpoint downplayed the KKK’s history there, saying that ‘local historical accounts occasionally frame the 1920s Klan as a product of ‘white Protestant culture’ responding to societal changes rather than an explicitly hate-driven movement.'” It only took a day for LA Times’ new AI tool to sympathize with the KKK.
