Protesters have surrounded the federal detention center in Los Angeles. California isn’t backing down, this is a full-blown standoff with the feds.

Revised after today’s disgrace

How it started/How it's going

Uncovering Conflicts of Interest and Self-Dealing in the Executive Branch The new administration could use federal contracts, tariffs, regulations, taxes, and other levers of government to benefit campaign donors, high-level officials, and the president himself.

Parse through the Trump administration's corruption with
@brennancenter.bsky.social's new resource guide:

Career Prosecutors Balk Again At Corrupt Ask From Trump DOJ A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This...

The corrupt use of criminal investigative tools to try to claw back $20B in Biden EPA funding –a gambit that already led to the forced resignation of a career prosecutor who raised objections–has continued below the radar, the WaPo is reporting.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Opinion | Finally, something is puncturing conspiracy theories Researchers have long struggled to combat conspiracy theories. Artificial Intelligence offers hope.

“In a pair of studies involving more than 2000 participants, the researchers found a 20 percent reduction in belief in conspiracy theories after participants interacted with a powerful, flexible, personalized GPT-4 Turbo conversation partner.”

Key NASA officials' departure casts more uncertainty over US moon program NASA is losing four key senior officials close to its flagship moon program, according to people familiar with the changes, adding more uncertainty over the agency's space exploration trajectory as Elon Musk and President Donald Trump play up missions to Mars.

NASA's Jim Free, a key official who has defended the agency's moon program, is leaving NASA on Saturday, and the CFO, CIO and top procurement official at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center had their retirements announced internally yesterday. www.reuters.com/world/us/key...

Elon Musk Is Putin’s Best Weapon The world’s richest man is coordinating with the world’s most dangerous dictator.

"It is, in many ways, an oligarchy gestating in real time. It is an opening to influence American policy beyond the Kremlin’s wildest dreams. And it is what an implosion of democracy looks like."

November 1, 2024.

Reasons to love the EFF, cont'd.

Opinion: Navalny's words of love NPR's Scott Simon remembers Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died a year ago Sunday in a Russian prison.

NPR's Scott Simon remembers Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny, who died a year ago Sunday in a Russian prison.

BREAKING: JD Vance Lays the Groundwork to Eliminate the Separation of Powers This is an extremely dangerous time in America, and a special report is warranted.

BREAKING: JD Vance Lays the Groundwork to Eliminate the Separation of Powers in America. I break it all down in a special, midday Substack and provide my legal perspective on this dangerous comment. open.substack.com/pub/aaronpar...

This tweet is setting up the Trump administration to thrust the U.S. into a constitutional crisis and obliterate our system of checks and balances as we know it.

Can your Congressperson and Senators 202-224-3121. Congress needs to investigate this immediately. Private mercenaries are not (legally) allowed to block Members of Congress.

NIH plans to slash support for indirect research costs, sending shockwaves through science The NIH said Friday night that it would slash support for indirect costs on all existing and future grants to 15%

Context from STAT.

www.statnews.com/2025/02/07/n...

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%.

I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

The NIH overhead cut doesn't just hurt universities.

It's deadly to the US economy.

The US is a world leader in tech due to the ecosystem that NIH and NSF propel. It drives innovation for tech transfer, creates a highly-skilled sci/tech workforce, and fosters academic/industry crossfertilization.

Pam Bondi ends FBI effort to combat foreign influence in U.S. politics The order also curbs prosecutions of Americans who improperly lobby for foreign nations. President Donald Trump says Republicans were unfairly targeted in the past.

This tells you who their constituents are. Not American voters. Not Americans at all.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

Representation without taxation for a handful of billionaires, taxation without representation for the rest of us.

Of course it’s a coup Miss the obvious, lose your republic

Read scholar and author Dr. Timothy Snyder (On Tyrrany) latest snyder.substack.com/p/of-course-...

EPA employees who work on environmental justice are put on leave In an email obtained by NPR, employees at EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights were told they were on administrative leave, effective immediately.

In an email obtained by NPR, employees at EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights were told they were on administrative leave, effective immediately.

Exclusive: Trump Air Force nominee arranged satellite contract in manner that favored Musk's SpaceX, sources say President Donald Trump's nominee as Air Force Secretary, currently a top official at the national spy satellite agency, arranged a multibillion-dollar contract solicitation in a way that favored Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to seven people familiar with the contract.

Exclusive: President Trump's nominee as Air Force Secretary, currently a top official at the national spy satellite agency, arranged a multibillion-dollar contract solicitation in a way that favored Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to seven people familiar with the contract reut.rs/4b7MUKt

Did Trump Quietly Kill a Sensitive Pentagon Probe into Elon Musk? The New York Times revealed last year that Musk and SpaceX failed to meet federal reporting requirements for Pentagon contractors. No one has asked: What’s going on with that today?

The New York Times revealed last year that Musk and SpaceX failed to meet federal reporting requirements for Pentagon contractors. No one has asked: What’s going on with that today?

NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease.

Breaking news: The Trump administration cut billions in biomedical funding. Researchers say it imperils work on cancer and other illnesses.

Firefighter Hiring Stalls at Federal Agencies After Trump’s Freeze Job offers have been rescinded and start dates pushed back just as firefighting staffing for the summer wildfire season was beginning, a union said.

The hiring of thousands of federal firefighters has stalled amid a governmentwide freeze ordered by President Trump, just as agencies were beginning to ramp up staffing for the summer wildfire season, according to a firefighters’ union.

Trump's pick for FBI chief took money from Russian propagandist, WP reports Kash Patel received $25,000 in 2024 from a company run by pro-Kremlin filmmaker Igor Lopatonok.

⚡️Trump's pick for FBI chief took money from Russian propagandist, WP reports.

Kash Patel received $25,000 in 2024 from a company run by pro-Kremlin filmmaker Igor Lopatonok.

Did Trump Quietly Kill a Sensitive Pentagon Probe into Elon Musk? The New York Times revealed last year that Musk and SpaceX failed to meet federal reporting requirements for Pentagon contractors. No one has asked: What’s going on with that today?

Musk appears largely unshackled from ethical or oversight constraints despite wielding enormous influence over the American government and despite his businesses being deeply intertwined with the U.S. national security apparatus.

Former Spies Warn Congress Over ‘Insidious’ Aim of CIA Buyouts A group of 200 former national security officials urged congressional leaders to investigate the motive behind the Central Intelligence Agency’s buyout offers to staff, warning they were designed to “...

A group of 200 former national security officials urged congressional leaders to investigate the motive behind the Central Intelligence Agency’s buyout offers to staff, warning they were designed to “shape the workforce in a matter that prioritizes political loyalty.”

Photo of Colleen Shogan

Portrait photo of Donald Trump

Trump just fired the National Archives Director Colleen Shogan

“This evening, President Trump fired me. No cause or reason was cited."

🔗 www.404media.co/trump-fires-...

A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis Designates DOGE Staff as ‘Insider Threat’ An internal email reviewed by WIRED calls DOGE staff's access to federal payments systems “the single biggest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

SCOOP: A US Treasury threat intelligence analysis has designated DOGE staff an ‘insider threat'. An internal email reviewed by WIRED calls DOGE staff's access to federal payments systems “the single biggest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

What Justice Jackson warned about in the Trump immunity case Is coming true “I worry that after this ruling, our Nation will reap what this Court has sown.”

“I’m trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the Oval Office into the seat of criminal activity in this country,” Jackson said.