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Italy Bans China's DeepSeek AI Chatbot Over Privacy Fears
Kraken to delist Tether USDT, 4 other stablecoins in Europe
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
5 years since COVID declared public health emergency in US, still killing thousands
2,861 deaths from the virus have already been reported in the last 28 days.
Politics:
Our first big concentration camp to receive its initial victims, cattle cars not available: Migrant Flights to Guantanamo Begin This Weekend
Musk Aides Lock Federal Workers Out of Computer System
Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees.
Said one official: “We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems. That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”
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Trump launched air controller diversity program that he now decries
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F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Sponsorships
Trump to Purge FBI Agents Who Investigated Him
The Trump administration is set to expand a purge of career law enforcement officials, with dozens of FBI agents who worked on January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack and Trump-related investigations as well as some supervisors being evaluated for possible removal as soon as the end of Friday.
The changes highlight how the new administration has moved quickly to deliver on President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back at the Justice Department and FBI that he claims have been weaponized against him. Trump has falsely accused agents of abuse in their court-ordered search of his Mar-a-Lago home and of their treatment of Capitol rioters.
The agency has already removed scientific data from public view. More could follow.
How Trump Could Serve a Third Term
He could generate a movement to repeal the 22nd Amendment directly. He could exploit a little-noticed loophole in the amendment that might allow him to run for vice president and then immediately ascend back to the presidency. He could run for president again on the bet that a pliant Supreme Court won’t stop him. Or he could simply refuse to leave — and put a formal end to America’s democratic experiment.
Pritzker Blocks Capitol Rioters from State Jobs
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is blocking those who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol from working in state jobs, ignoring President Donald Trump’s attempt to offer them a clean slate last week in a sweeping set of pardons and commutations.
Late Thursday, Pritzker directed the state’s Department of Central Management Services, the state’s primary hiring authority, to restrict hiring of those who took part in the attack on the Capitol by declaring they had taken part in ‘infamous and disgraceful conduct that is antithetical to the mission of the State.’
Elon Musk donated $288 million to 2024 election
Friday’s FEC filings cement Musk’s status as the biggest political donor of the recent presidential cycle at a moment when he has amassed an extraordinary amount of power as a member of Trump’s inner circle — and decried by critics as a de facto, unelected co-president.
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Memo Directs Funds According to Marriage, Birth Rates
The Department of Transportation has released a memo ordering that programs supported or assisted by the agency prioritize funding projects for communities that have above-average marriage and birth rates.
Newly-confirmed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy buried the oddly specific requirement by describing the Wednesday memo as focused on economic growth, rather than population growth, and echoed President Donald Trump’s criticism of programs to improve diversity, equity and inclusion.
Why Democrats Should Not Show Deference to Trump
I know that in 2008 Barack Obama won the popular vote by 7.2 percentage points, yet Republicans opposed his agenda every step of the way. In January 2009, when the economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month, not a single House Republican voted for Obama’s rescue plan.
I also know that Joe Biden won by 4.5 percent in 2020, yet received no Republican support for anything he did.
Did Republicans pay a price for opposing and obstructing Obama and Biden? Hardly. They won big in the 2010 midterms and, of course, took Congress and the White House last November.
So Democrats are supposed to show deference to Donald Trump, who won by 1.5 percent — and didn’t even win a majority of the overall vote?
Surely, it’s just a coincidence: Trump’s Executive Actions Mirror Project 2025
Trump Is Just Watching This Crisis Unfold
What’s odd is that even as Trump acts so passively, his administration is moving quickly to seize unprecedented powers for the presidency. In part, that’s because of the ideological commitments of his aides, but Trump also has a curious view of presidential power as an à la carte thing. He’s very interested in acquiring and flexing power to control the justice system, punish his enemies, and crack down on immigration, but he’d just as soon get the federal government out of the emergency-management business.
The presidency is not a spectator sport, though. At the end of Being There (spoiler alert), a group of political advisers conspires to put Chauncey Gardiner forward as the next president. The movie’s central joke is that the childlike, TV-obsessed protagonist has inadvertently fooled the nation’s most powerful circles into believing that he is profound, simply by stating directly what little he sees and understands. Joke’s on us.
Journalists Alarmed at Another Media Company Settling
Journalists, including some at CBS News, are expressing alarm at reports that CBS parent company Paramount Global is trying to settle a legally dubious lawsuit lodged by President Donald Trump last fall.
The Irony of Trump Demonizing DEI
Trump has already done more to abandon the ideal of meritocracy than perhaps any presidential administration since the Progressive Era. He is going to war against the civil-service system, which was established more than a century ago to ensure that federal jobs go to qualified civil servants, rather than as rewards for party hacks, as had been the case previously. Trump, who believes that nonpartisan civil servants constitute a ‘deep state’ conspiracy against him, would rather lose their expertise than risk it being deployed in ways that thwart his personal ambitions.
He has gone even further in this direction in selecting his Cabinet. Every president tends to fill such roles with supporters, but Trump has elevated loyalty to an almost comical degree. Not only must Trump’s Cabinet officials have supported him in the election, but they must endorse, or at least refuse to contradict, his infamously false claim to have won the 2020 election. The driving logic behind many of his most high-profile Cabinet picks appears to be a desire to find individuals who will stand behind the president if and when he violates norms, laws, or basic decency.
Census Bureau Director Resigns in Middle of Term
The director of the Census Bureau announced this week he is resigning, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to appoint an ally to lead the agency that plays a crucial role in American politics.
Feds Move to End Investigation of GOP Congressman
Federal prosecutors based in Nashville have withdrawn from the criminal investigation of Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), an unprecedented move that could signal plans by the Trump administration to drop the case against a Republican ally.
This is probably bogus, but it’s getting hard to tell nowadays:
FCC “Requests” 60 Minutes Footage and Transcripts
The Federal Communications Commission requested that Paramount Global hand over its footage and transcripts from an October “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris as part of its review of the company’s planned merger with Skydance Media.
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