Dave Kaplan

Scientists scared into silence. Sources who need protection. Missing paper trails. As this extraordinary SEJ panel shows, US environmental reporters must increasingly adopt the tools of investigative journalism under the Trump regime.

Our cover this week.

Political art of the day award:

The utter incompetence of this administration is hard to fathom. These are B-team players who never should have been appointed to positions of authority. And this is after just two months.

Opinion | America’s voice, silenced Trump is dismantling U.S. programs that push back against dictatorship and reach people in closed societies.

The US is unilaterally disarming in the global war against disinformation, as Trump orders the closure of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, VOA, and more. The damage being done is incalculable. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Thanks, Donald. Soon MERS, Marburg, HIV, and other pernicious
viruses will join this deadly bacteria, meaning you or a loved may get sick and die thanks to the antiscience Republicans and the fools they've tricked into voting for them:

A bit of good news: legal action has forced the State Dept to start releasing NED funding, but still waiting for full restoration of funds. Thank God the US courts are still responsive. mailchi.mp/ned/ned-news...

Here's a look at the damage from cutting off US funding to int'l media development. The US provided a third of global support ($150-$200m yearly) -- to strengthen independent media, transparency, accountability. Hardest hit: watchdog media focused on autocracies. innovating.news/guest-essay/...

French Senator Claude Malhuret gives an extraordinary analysis of what's happening to the United States: "The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarians of the 21st Century."

Today the Nat'l Endowment for Democracy filed suit against the Trump Admin. The suit gives a look at the depth of damage being done -- the withholding here of $240m already appropriated funds, mostly for grants to nearly 1,300 projects worldwide. www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/u...

Trump Sets Record for Longest Speech Without Single Fact Republicans were awestruck by their leader’s ability, at the age of 78, to give such a sustained fact-free oration.

www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-sets...

A Triple Threat to Humanity: Climate Change, Pandemics, and Anti-Science | Skeptical Inquirer Over the past decade, many of us in the scientific community have come to appreciate the existential threat we face today—a threat unlike any we’ve witnesse ...

skepticalinquirer.org/2024/12/a-tr...

Cuts at USAID and Elsewhere Strain Global Journalism Investigative journalists around the world relied on funding from the U.S. Now, those watchdogs are scrambling to survive a sudden cash crunch.

How did exposing corruption and lack of accountability get on the right-wing's hit list? Let's hope our European friends and others step up to fill America's abandonment of promoting democracy and rule of law around the world.

Democracy Undone: The Authoritarian’s Playbook - Overview | The GroundTruth Project

The Autocrats Playbook, a 2019 GroundTruth Project that outlines seven key steps used to subvert democracy and rule of law: Weaponize Fear, Target Outsiders, Undermine Institutions, Rewrite History, Exploit Religion, Divide and Conquer, Erode Truth.
thegroundtruthproject.org/the-authorit...

Americans got fat and stupid. Now it’s left to those willing to stand up and stop the descent into techno-fascism.

The USAID Crisis and Funding the Future of Independent Media Across the investigative journalism community, GIJN has heard uniform voices of solidarity, and numerous creative strategies for surviving this fundraising crisis.

GIJN’s Rowan Philp surveys the damage to watchdog media being done by Trump and his cronies: gijn.org/stories/usai...

JD Vance and Vél D’Hiv: An Ignominious Ignorance of Evil Vance berated European leaders last week to be more like MAGA. They tried once and it didn’t end well.

Thoughts on JD Vance’s moronic comments in Europe, from Kent Harrington, one of the smartest people I know: open.substack.com/pub/kentmhar...

This app is turbocharging calls to Congress about Trump’s policies Can (and should) citizen engagement be as simple as a food delivery app?

Turbocharging calls to Congress about Trump policies www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...