Trump and Musk Are Strangling the Government
Plus: In Defense of Snow Days
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SAM STEIN: Trump and Musk Are Strangling the Government
ON SATURDAY, THE STATE DEPARTMENT issued a memo clarifying that PEPFAR, the world’s most successful initiative to combat HIV and AIDS, was exempt from President Donald Trump’s pause on foreign aid.
The announcement was a relief to the global health community, which had been uncertain if prior waivers for life-saving medical services had put PEPFAR in the clear. But in the days since, officials on the front line of the fight against HIV in Africa say operations remain hampered, resource-strained, and stuck in limbo.
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Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Michael Steele: Gum Up The Works [YouTube]
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The Michael Steele Podcast: We Don't Have to Agree, But Let's Seek the Truth (with Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robert George)
George Conway Explains it All (to Sarah Longwell): How to Stop the Dismantling of Our Government
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CLARE COFFEY: In Defense of Snow Days
THE EXCITEMENT STARTS BUILDING the night before, when temperatures begin to drop. The night air turns sportive, feral, running off with your breath when you step out the door. The stars glitter like they know a secret. Anticipation is half pleasurable fear: What if it doesn’t happen after all? What if it doesn’t come? That would be unbearable, now. Children sweat through probabilities and superstitions like hardened Vegas gamblers. Is not doing the assignment a sign of faith that guarantees the outcome—that there will be no one to turn it in to the next day? Or is it presumption that invites a sickeningly foreseeable contrapasso?
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Thursday! We’re going to do what with our ATC system now?
J.D. Vance’s half brother… Is running for Mayor of Cincinnati (Enquirer).
Trump has ruined... the U.S. friendship with Canada (Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun).
Do Democrats Have a Plan? Senator Brian Schatz on how the Party should be responding to Donald Trump’s breakneck assault on the government. (New Yorker)
DOGE Staffer Resigns… Over Racist Posts (WSJ).
Libertarian Party Gets New National Chair… After Angela McArdle's Surprise Resignation. This Reason story has all the twists and turns needed for a perfect Libertarian Saga.
The National Garage Racing Championships… Are taking place in Northern Virginia later this month.
“Let me just let me make this clear: We’re either the party of law and order, or we’re not.” NJ Republican Gubernatorial candidate Jon Bramnick criticized Trump’s pardons of violent January 6 insurrectionists in a recent debate. (NJ Globe).
“The psychopathy is the point.” Anthony Fisher at MSNBC on shattering the Overton window.
We Have to Take Some Kind of an L on Immigration, For Now… you can only ignore public sentiment for so long, argues Freddie deBoer.
The World of Hans Zimmer… Some remastered tracks from Hans Zimmer, including the 1996 Action/Thriller classic The Rock? Sign me up. Also Final Ascent from No Time to Die is great.
Fox’s hiring of Lara Trump… Is exactly what it looks like (MSNBC)
What do you think?
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