Ezra Ball

It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points

Opinion | It would be unfair to judge a 1000 year Reich by its first 7 weeks.

Internal Memos: Senior USAID Leaders Warned Trump Appointees of Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths From Closing Agency One million children will go untreated for severe malnutrition, up to 166,000 people will die from malaria and 200,000 more children will be paralyzed by polio over the next decade, the memos…

Tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease on the planet, kills more than 1.25M people a year. New infections are expected to surge by 30% as a result of closing USAID, a memo says. The increase will inevitably lead to cases in the U.S.

How it started. How it’s going.

Edit: I thought of one obvious thing not to love: that those shitheads represent the US.

There’s nothing not to love about this interaction, including the way Marco Rubio looks like he’s dissociating.

Imagine being rich enough to do anything you want and choosing to take food and medicine from starving children to give yourself even more money.

With Stephen Miller and Elon Musk now pulling the strings in Washington, an appreciative remembrance of Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers.

by David Brooks

Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile, sources say | CNN Some of the fired probationary employees included on-the-ground staff at facilities where nuclear weapons are built.

“Move fast and break things”

I mean it’s pretty obvious at this point. We need to figure out a way to get Kendrick Lamar pissed at Elon Musk.

Apparently you can just ignore court orders if you don’t have a reason to think they’ll be enforced.

Any four Republican Senators could stop this at any time simply by threatening to block all action (or even caucus with the Democrats) if Trump doesn't make certain concessions. They won't, but that should be a much bigger story than whether the Democrats are doing everything that *they* can.

This. Make it hard for the Republicans to destroy the country.

DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack while agency transitions to a records system not subject to FOIA

🔗 www.404media.co/doge-employe...

Where the hell is Lin-Manuel Miranda? Why isn’t he, in full costume, outside the Treasury Department, right now, RAPPING?!

THESE fools are #Musk's fearless anti-government crusaders?!?! Great, the 1st glimpse of side boob and they'll hand over the literal keys to the country.

The key to negotiating with allies is to make bold extreme threats and then back off, getting nothing in return.

Opinion | Don’t Believe Him (Gift Article) Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different than what he wants you to see.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/o...

Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System (Gift Article) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Mr. Musk’s representatives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u...

The “fork in the road“ email that federal employees received has gotten quite a bit of coverage. But check this where it came from: Musk’s team have taken over the HR systems at the Office of Personnel Management. It’s pretty bad.

www.reuters.com/world/us/mus...

Worried about our nation’s descent into fascism? This one pot cacio e pepe will make you feel like you’re in 1920s Italy.

One of the better headlines i've read in recent history.

Ahhh. That's the stuff.

I also still listen to @onthemedia.bsky.social on NPR each week. This week's episode about Trump 2.0 Week 1 is a great listen.

... the two daily sources I rely on to prioritize what to pay attention to are... @hcrichardson.bsky.social 's Letters from an American (on Substack or via email) and @davepell.bsky.social 's Next Draft (via email(!))

One thing I’m not doing for Trump 2.0 is gorging on the news. I quit listening to NPR on my commute months ago. I keep my time allocated for news consumption to ~30 minutes per day. To keep engaged without getting paralyzed by the horrors...

Pete Hegseth has so many disqualifying characteristics that it's distracted everyone from the fact that he has no qualifying experience.

Unlike Obama, who hobbled into office with a 7.2% victory in the popular vote, Donald Trump takes office with a clear mandate after a 1.5% victory in the popular vote.