Reading archive 2025-02-05

Republicans quiet as Trump and Musk take the ax to federal agencies: The new administration launched one of its most brazen challenges to Congress’s authority. Many lawmakers offered little pushback.

Greenland bans foreign political funding as Trump seeks control: Its government said the law aims to protect the Danish territory’s “political integrity” and must be seen in light of the geopolitical interests in Greenland.

How Trump could feel the ‘pain’ on his tariffs: Trump says economic pain from his tariffs is “THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID,” but Americans don’t seem to agree.

Trump ordered workers back to the office. They ask, where, exactly?: The clock is ticking for federal workers to return to in-person work, but many say there simply isn’t enough space in their offices.

Another Politician Blames Fall of Rome on Homosexuality

A Penetrating Inquiry – The Suda on Kinaidia (NSFW!)

Welcome to the era of Trump Trad: This president’s aesthetic combines classical architecture and cartoonish virility with WWE alternative reality.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be ... abolished?: With Israel’s Netanyahu alongside, Trump adds Gaza to his list of colonial ambitions.

Elon Musk has your Social Security number. It’s as scary as it sounds.: There is no legitimate reason for the ‘DOGE’ to have access to the federal payment system.

Only in Washington could this fiscal vandalism be called tax ‘relief’: The $10,000 cap on state and local taxes is bad enough. Raising it would just rub SALT in the wound. - "Before 2017, the unlimited SALT deduction made it politically easier to implement the blue model of governance: high taxes to fund Democratic regimes that are substantially funded by contributions from public employees unions. To those unions, state and local tax revenue do not trickle down, they flow down like rivers."

U.S. government officials privately warn Musk’s blitz appears illegal: The billionaire’s DOGE team has launched an all-out assault on federal agencies, triggering numerous legal objections.

D.C. Council expels Trayon White over allegations he took bribes: It was the first time the body has taken that step in its half-century history. White remains eligible to run in a special election to fill his seat.

A tragedy reveals D.C. has run out of sky: National will always be essential but safety demands that air traffic be spread across the region. - "National Airport, built on a small stretch of land that is hemmed in by development on one side and the river on the other, was designed to handle 15 million passengers a year. Today, about 25 million come and go through the airport. And more than 100 helicopters a day fly around and under arriving and departing passenger jets, ferrying VIPs and military officers."

America Can’t Just Unpause USAID: The speed with which the Trump administration took the agency apart will be felt for years to come.

CIA reportedly offers buyouts to entire workforce in latest Trump-era purge: The Central Intelligence Agency offered buyouts on Tuesday, citing aim to bring agency in line with Trump priorities, US media report

Dear Mr. Vice President, Please Take Off Your Apple Watch: An Open Letter To JD Vance From A Former CIA Officer On The Counterintelligence Risks Of Smartwatches

One Response to Trump’s Tariffs: Trade That Excludes the U.S.: A growing number of countries, including American allies, are striking trade deals as the Trump administration erects a higher fence around its global commerce.

There Is No Going Back - "And so the president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was. Whatever comes next, should the country weather this attempted hijacking, will need to be a fundamental rethinking of what this system is and what we want out of it."

The New Rasputins: Anti-science mysticism is enabling autocracy around the globe. - "The philosophers of the Enlightenment, whose belief in the possibility of law-based democratic states gave us both the American and French Revolutions, railed against what they called obscurantism: darkness, obfuscation, irrationality. But the prophets of what we might now call the New Obscurantism offer exactly those things: magical solutions, an aura of spirituality, superstition, and the cultivation of fear. Among their number are health quacks and influencers who have developed political ambitions; fans of the quasi-religious QAnon movement and its Pizzagate-esque spin-offs; and members of various political parties, all over Europe, that are pro-Russia and anti-vaccine and, in some cases, promoters of mystical nationalism as well. Strange overlaps are everywhere. Both the left-wing German politician Sahra Wagenknecht and the right-wing Alternative for Germany party promote vaccine and climate-change skepticism, blood-and-soil nationalism, and withdrawal of German support for Ukraine. All across Central Europe, a fascination with runes and folk magic aligns with both right-wing xenophobia and left-wing paganism. Spiritual leaders are becoming political, and political actors have veered into the occult. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who has become an apologist for Russian aggression, has claimed that he was attacked by a demon that left 'claw marks' on his body."