- Heather Cox Richardson – Letters from an American – March 1, 2025
John Simpson of the BBC noted recently that “there are years when the world goes through some fundamental, convulsive change.” Seven weeks in, he suggested, 2025 is on track to be one of them: “a time when the basic assumptions about the way our world works are fed into the shredder.”Simpson was referring to the course the United States has taken in the past month as the administration of President Donald Trump has hacked the United States away from 80 years of alliances and partnerships with democratic nations in favor of forging ties with autocrats like Russian president Vladimir Putin.
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After yesterday’s Oval Office debacle, democratic nations rejected Trump and Vance’s embrace of Russia and Putin and publicly reiterated their support for Ukraine and President Zelensky. The leaders of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Union, and others all posted their support for Ukraine and Zelensky. - Trump & Vance’s Power Play Backfires—Weakness Exposed
Trump stacks the deck for Putin, and against democracy
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Interestingly, a Russian politician predicted the meeting’s outcome a day earlier. From a Daily Beast story by Julia Davis - DOGE Claims Credit for Killing Contracts That Were Already Dead
Elon Musk’s group claimed credit for canceling procurement agreements that had been completed years earlier, the latest in a string of public errors on its site. - Your Boss Wants You Back in the Office. This Surveillance Tech Could Be Waiting for You
Warehouse-style employee tracking tech has expanded into job after job. Now, as millions are called back to the workplace, it’s finally coming for the office worker.
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Five years on from the pandemic, when the world showed how effectively many roles could be performed remotely or flexibly, what’s caused the sudden change of heart?“There’s two things happening,” says global industry analyst Josh Bersin, who is based in California. “The economy is actually slowing down, so companies are hiring less. So there is a trend toward productivity in general, and then AI has forced virtually every company to reallocate resources toward AI projects.
“The expectation amongst CEOs is that’s going to eliminate a lot of jobs. A lot of these back-to-work mandates are due to frustration that both of those initiatives are hard to measure or hard to do when we don’t know what people are doing at home.”
- Speaker Mike Johnson Is Living in a D.C. House That Is the Center of a Pastor’s Secretive Influence Campaign
The Capitol Hill townhouse is owned by a major Republican donor. It’s the headquarters of a little-known political influence project that has reached a number of powerful Republican politicians.
In 2021, Steve Berger, an evangelical pastor who has attacked the separation of church and state as “a delusional lie” and called multinational institutions “demonic,” set off on an ambitious project. His stated goal: minister to members of Congress so that what “they learn is then translated into policy.” His base of operations would be a six-bedroom, $3.7 million townhouse blocks from the U.S. Capitol.
- The Maga reporter whose humiliation of Zelensky sparked a geopolitical crisis
‘Why don’t you wear a suit?’ jibe aimed at Ukrainian president came from the boyfriend of Right-wing firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene - The US Solar Power Industry Is Trying to Rebrand as MAGA-Friendly
As Donald Trump rages against renewable energy, solar power is being reimagined as a symbol of American “energy dominance.” - President Harry S. Truman – October 13, 1948
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I have discovered where the Republicans stand on most of the major issues.
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they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it. - The accounting maneuver that could make the cost of extending Trump’s tax cuts look like zero
- Mark Cuban offers to fund government tech unit that was cut in the middle of the night
“If you worked for 18F and got fired, Group together to start a consulting company,” wrote Cuban. “It’s just a matter of time before DOGE needs you to fix the mess they inevitably created. They will have to hire your company as a contractor to fix it. But on your terms. I’m happy to invest and/or help.”
- Israel cuts off Gaza aid to pressure Hamas to accept a new ceasefire proposal
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel stopped the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip on Sunday and warned of “additional consequences” if Hamas doesn’t accept a new proposal to extend a fragile ceasefire, while key mediator Egypt accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon.”
- Declaration of Independence, translated into German, published in Philadelphia, 1776
- ‘Interrupted by boos’: GOP lawmaker confronted by ‘angry crowd’ in ‘deep red’ Texas county
- FAA staff reportedly ordered to find funding for deal with Musk’s Starlink
Discussions about the deal, which could upend a $2.4 billion Verizon contract with the US, have happened verbally, reports Rolling Stone. - Liz Cheney – Only fools—or Kremlin tools—would abandon NATO, side with Russia, and demand Ukraine surrender in the face of Putin’s brutal aggression.
- Mark O’Connor – We need to keep posting about the cancelations of shows at the Kennedy Center. This play Eureka Day, which contains the subject of vaccines, was just cancelled
- The Key Mismatch Between Zelensky and Trump
- America faces a Trumpian economic slowdown
Protectionist threats and erratic policies are combining to hurt growth - Republicans terrified of crossing Trump due to physical threats, Democrat says
Eric Swalwell says threats to them and their families are stopping GOP officials from criticizing president