Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Bitcoin-to-gold ratio breaks 12-year support as gold price hits a record $3K
Google Joins OpenAI in Asking Trump to Relax AI Copyright Restrictions
Major bank with thousands of locations sparks fears after abruptly closing 38 branches
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
German spy agency 'believed Covid likely started in lab'
Politics:
Judge orders thousands of federal workers reinstated; slams ‘sham’ government declaration
The judge slammed the attorney representing the Justice Department for refusing to make OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell available for cross-examination and for withdrawing his sworn declaration, which the judge called a "sham."
"The government, I believe, has tried to frustrate the judge's ability to get at the truth of what happened here, and then set forth sham declarations," he said. "That's not the way it works in the U.S. District Court." …
"You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You're afraid to do so, because, you know, cross-examination would reveal the truth. This is the U.S. District Court," he said. "I tend to doubt that you're telling me the truth."
Thousand Year Reich was already taken: America First Policy Institute's "100-year plan" for Trumpism
What happened when AI went after welfare fraud
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DOGE Makes Its Latest Errors Harder to Find
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has repeatedly posted error-filled data that inflated its success at saving taxpayer money. But after a series of news reports called out those mistakes, the group changed its tactics.
It began making its new mistakes harder to find, leaving its already secretive activities even less transparent than before.
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Let’s just officially pretend it doesn’t exist: Trump Backs Senate Tax Plan Accounting
President Donald Trump indicated to GOP senators during a White House meeting Thursday that he supports using an accounting method that would treat trillions of dollars in tax cuts in a massive GOP package as costing nothing.
House and Senate Republicans are split on the controversial accounting tactic, though Speaker Mike Johnson is increasingly open to using it. The move would make it easier for GOP lawmakers to make the math work on their costly plan.
Judge Orders Sweeping Rehiring of Fired Workers
The order by U.S. District Judge James Bredar was even more broad than a similar ruling earlier in the day from a different federal judge.
A second federal judge has ordered the mass reinstatement of fired federal workers, reversing the Trump administration’s terminations of probationary employees at 18 major agencies.
The agencies covered by U.S. District Judge James Bredar’s sweeping order, issued Thursday night, include the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury, among others.
“My ethical duty as a Department of Justice employee — and now a former one — is to the laws of the United States and the people that I was entrusted to serve. It is not to the bullies who are currently running the Department of Justice.” — Elizabeth Oyer, the U.S. pardon attorney fired after not agreeing to restore Mel Gibson’s gun rights, quoted by the Washington Post.
Russia Didn’t Want Trump’s Envoy at Peace Talks
President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia was excluded from high-level talks on ending the war after the Kremlin said it didn’t want him there.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg was conspicuously absent from two recent summits in Saudi Arabia — one with Russian officials and the other with Ukrainians — even though the talks come under his remit.
Americans worry Trump too closely aligned with Russia, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Trump Asks for Military Options for the Panama Canal
Sweden to expand arms and space capabilities without US
Shutdown Or Not, Trump Admin Is Prepping New Ways To Ignore Separation Of Powers
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