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BILL KRISTOL & ANDREW EGGER: The Cruelty Isn’t the Point. It’s the Pleasure.
JVL: The World Will Go Nuclear 🔐
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SAM STEIN: The DOGE Brain Drain Has Begun
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THREE DAYS AFTER the National Institutes of Health abruptly announced it would place a strict, low cap on the money it sends to universities and research institutions for the administrative costs of scientific research, the University of Iowa made an abrupt announcement of its own.
The school’s Office of the Vice President for Research declared that going forward, it would pause “the hiring of new Graduate Research Assistants unless they are already budgeted as a direct cost on a funded project.”
MARK HERTLING: We’re Negotiating with War Criminals
WE FIND OURSELVES IN WHAT President Zelensky of Ukraine has recently called a “disinformation bubble” regarding the war in Ukraine, so perhaps it’s time for some cold, hard facts—what the military might call a “BFO,” a blinding flash of the obvious. Vladimir Putin started this war in Ukraine by launching an unprovoked invasion. Throughout the three years of this conflict, Russian forces have purposely committed documented war crimes. Yet the Kremlin—now aided by some in the United States—continues to spread propaganda to mask the truth. From the deliberate bombing of civilian infrastructure to mass executions in places like Bucha to the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, the evidence of war crimes is overwhelming. And we are negotiating with them.
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Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Jared Moskowitz and Zeke Faux: Scams Galore [YouTube: Moskowitz, Faux]
The Next Level: America's Villain Era 🔐 [YouTube]
WTF 2.0: MAGA and the Catholic Church [YouTube]
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ADRIAN CARRASQUILLO: When DHS Sends Your Son to Gitmo
SO MUCH OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S mass deportation policy hinges on the word “criminals.”
Most Americans agree that real criminals in the country illegally are bad and should be deported.
Where the administration has outrun the public is in the matter of who is considered a criminal. When Trump’s term began, they said the focus was on “public safety threats and national security threats”—the most serious risks. But a week later, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said all undocumented immigrants swept up in raids qualified because they “illegally broke our nation’s laws, and therefore they are criminals, as far as this administration goes.”
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Wednesday!
Free speech in America won’t survive… if this Supreme Court decision is overturned (Anthony L. Fisher, MSNBC).
ICE Prosecutor in Dallas… Runs White Supremacist X Account (Stephen Monacelli, Texas Observer)
Pence speaks… “Mr. President, Ukraine did not “start” this war.”
Quote of the Day:
"Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator, who would eat you for lunch,”
—Vice President Kamala Harris, calling it in her debate against Trump.
These Soldiers Risked Their Lives Serving in Afghanistan... Now They Plead With Trump to Let Their Sister Into the U.S. (ProPublica)
Government Welfare Is Evil… Unless the Money Goes to the Wealthiest Man in the World (McSweeney’s)
Pete Hegseth Shares Back-Taxes Self-Own… While Blasting ‘Biden IRS’ For Audit (Daily Beast)
Musk, Trump Establish New Era… of Kleptocracy in America (Garrett Graff).
What was it like on the plane that crashed in Toronto? A reddit user takes questions.
Trump Vowed to Clean Up Washington… Then His Team Hired a Man Who Pushed a Scam the IRS Called the “Worst of the Worst” (ProPublica)
Schlapp groped bar customer… per sheriff's report (24Sight).
Trump: "We're gonna spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising how bad drugs are so that kids don't use them." One might argue the campaign is already in motion, albeit unintentionally.
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