ProPublica: The October Story That Outlined Exactly What the Trump Administration Would Do to the Federal Bureaucracy
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In late October, ProPublica published one of its most prophetic stories in our history. You can be forgiven if you missed it at the time. There was a lot going on in the days before the election, and the headlines were dominated by seemingly consequential issues like the racist humor of a comedian who addressed Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.
But if you weren’t among the several hundred thousand people who read our story, “‘Put Them in Trauma’: Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda,” in real time, you may have seen it referenced since Trump took office in January.
The story drew on private recordings of a series of speeches given in 2023 and 2024 by Russell Vought obtained by our colleagues at Documented, a news site with a remarkable knack for uncovering information powerful interests would prefer remained secret.
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 23, 2025
Fifteen years ago today, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, into law. In addition to making healthcare more affordable, the law eliminated lifetime limits on benefits, prohibits discrimination because of pre-existing conditions, and allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies until they are 26. In 2024, about 24 million people signed up for Obamacare coverage for 2025, while another 21 million adults were covered by the law’s expansion of Medicaid. The ACA has increased the number of Americans covered by health insurance and slowed the rise of health care costs across the board.
Republicans immediately vowed to get rid of the ACA because they object to government regulation of business, provision of a basic social safety net, and promotion of infrastructure. Such a government, Republicans argue, is essentially socialism: it prohibits individuals’ ability to control their businesses without government interference, and it redistributes wealth from the haves to the have-nots through taxes.
This is a modern-day stance, by the way: it was actually Republican president Theodore Roosevelt who first proposed universal healthcare at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Republican president Dwight Eisenhower who first tried to muscle such a program into being with the help of the new department created under him: the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which in 1979 became the Department of Health and Human Services. Its declared mission was “improving the health, safety, and well-being of America.” In contrast to their forebears, today’s Republicans do not believe the government has such a role to play.
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In contrast, in 2022, former president Obama explained why the Democrats worked so hard to begin the process of getting healthcare coverage for Americans. “[W]e’re not supposed to do this just to occupy a seat or to hang on to power,” he said. “We’re supposed to do this because it’s making a difference in the lives of the people who sent us here.”
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Beschloss: Refusing to Be Complicit (redux)
In his first week, the newly inaugurated president proved (once again) that he rejects our laws, values and principles. It’s a mistake for Democrats to try and work with him.
It’s been hard to take off a few days—or even a few hours—since Donald Trump stepped foot again in our White House. But I would be wrong to urge you to take time off to manage the madness and distress of this dark chapter, then burn out myself.
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I stand by what I said two months ago: We must refuse to be complicit. The more you give in to Trump, the more he will take. And, I wrote, “going along with even some of Trump’s policies in order to minimize the damage represents collaborating with a man bent on the destruction of American democracy and aiding his effort.”
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Wired: Trump’s Aggression Sours Europe on US Cloud Giants
Companies in the EU are starting to look for ways to ditch Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloud services amid fears of rising security risks from the US. But cutting ties won’t be easy.
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Daily Beast: Angry Voters Yell at ‘Empty Chair’ Town Halls as Republicans Chicken Out
RAGING IN ABSENTIA
‘Empty chair’ town halls are in uproar as Republican lawmakers refuse to hold public events.
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Facing a growing public backlash over President Donald Trump’s policies—particularly his megadonor and adviser Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle federal agencies and purge the civil service—Republican leaders have advised their caucuses to ditch town halls.In their absence, local activists held packed events in red states and districts during the congressional recess that ended Sunday. Lawmakers were invited but didn’t attend, leaving participants to rage in absentia against their representatives for their unflinching support of the Trump administration.
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Noah Berlatsky: The Oligarchy Isn’t Really In Control
It’s important to understand who you’re fighting
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Most voters are not wealthy and most voters (rightfully) resent the wealthy. Populist boilerplate slamming the out-of-touch elites is effective.More, there’s a lot of truth to that boilerplate, especially when the government is being run by a real-estate scion and the literal richest man on earth. “This nation was built by working people and we’re not going to let a handful of billionaires run the government,” Bernie Sanders declared at a massive “Fighting Oligarchy” rally with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It’s a solid message.
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But I think it’s also worth noting that right now, the oligarchs are…not exactly steering the ship.
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Fascists often work well with oligarchs, because fascists are militant crusaders on behalf of existing hierarchies. But fascism is not solely interested in generating wealth for the rich. Trump and Musk are also obsessed with racial hierarchy, with gender hierarchy, and with crushing immigrants (to point to just three obvious examples.)
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Bulwark: Stop Making Excuses for Not Fighting Trump
The capitulations and acquiescence we’ve seen so far will only make opposition more difficult down the road.
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All of these excuses—and there are many more!—are distasteful. But what’s worse is that they make it easier and more likely that others will capitulate. They make it seem that you’re kind of a chump if you actually fight Trump’s authoritarian takeover. The excuses offered for capitulation increase the damage done by capitulation.As usual, Shakespeare saw all. Here’s Pembroke in Act IV, Scene 2 of King John:
And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by th’ excuse,
As patches set upon a little breach
Discredit more in hiding of the fault
Than did the fault before it was so patched.The excuses offered by our elites for not standing up to authoritarianism have the effect of helping the authoritarians gain further ground.
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Jay Kuo: The Renditions Are Backfiring
The White House is facing growing resistance and outrage from all quarters for its summary deportations of migrants and defiance of court orders.
Last week, we learned with growing horror of the summary rendition of hundreds of migrants to a prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration, without any supporting evidence, claimed all the migrants were hardened criminals and members of the Tren de Aragua gang of Venezuela.
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Since then, there have been some notable developments exposing the administration’s entire operation as a sham from the get-go. Reports on the ground of non-gang members being swept up in this nightmare are now circulating widely. And the administration and its spokespersons are looking increasingly unhinged—and lately entirely on their own as Trump himself backs off from the mess and begins to throw others under the bus.
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YLE: Shady CDC page, measles, Americans are unhappy, egg prices down, and infant formula
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Over the weekend, a shadow CDC page on vaccines and autism (called the realcdc[.]org) was revealed. It looks exactly like an official CDC page—the same branding, fonts, and style. The difference was that it had false information about MMR vaccines causing autism, including videos of parent testimonials.
Here’s the kicker: This shadow site was hosted by Children’s Health Defense (CHD)— a non-profit, anti-vaxx organization started by Secretary Kennedy.
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The price of an egg dropped significantly last week for an average of $3.27 per dozen.
Why? Two simultaneous factors:- We’re seeing a slowdown in bird flu outbreaks. This is great for the birds and us since it means the virus has less of a chance to mutate.
- Demand dropped since people didn’t want to pay exorbitant prices for eggs.
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In early March 2025, egg prices fell in the U.S., but these trends are likely to reverse due to higher seasonal demand during Easter and Passover.
The Conversation: Egg prices soar as outdated supply chains crack under pressure
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Without addressing the systemic weaknesses in supply chains, I believe major health and economic disruptions will continue to happen in Colorado, nationally and around the world.
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Ancient Origins UNLEASHED: In Plain Sight, Our Neanderthal Ancestors
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Of all the racially bigoted stereotypes that have made their way into public consciousness, none are more incorrect and odious than those attributed to the ancient race of humans called Neanderthal.
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Neanderthals were not Alley-Oop, cartoon-like, ignorant, dumb, hairy creatures who walked heavily and carried big sticks. They made jewelry and specialized tools. They buried their dead with dignity, conducting funerals with flowers and memorabilia, just as we do today. They believed in an afterlife. They used makeup similar to what is found in every medicine cabinet in the so-called civilized world of today, but theirs was made of ocher and other natural pigments. They produced art which evidenced ‘symbolic thinking’ – the critical thought patterns needed to form a religious world-view. They did not grunt at each other. Modern studies done on Neanderthal remains prove they had vocal cords physically capable of speech patterns sufficient to produce and understand language. They probably had voices that were similar to people today who speak in raspy, high-pitched tones.
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To top it all off, they serenaded each other with music, their flutes tuned to what we call the pentatonic scale. In his book, The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body, Steven Mithen puts forth the theory that we are compelled to make music because we inherited the trait from our Neanderthal ancestors.
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TNR: Trump’s Most Dangerous Enabler Is Not Who You Think It Is
Kash Patel? Pam Bondi? Stephen Miller? No, no, and no. For now, the winner of this dubious title, and serial betrayer of his old principles, is the guy in Foggy Bottom.
And yet, due to quirks in how Trump has pursued some of his most malicious and destructive initiatives, it turns out that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is playing an unexpectedly critical role in a surprising number of them. And this is unfolding often in violation of Rubio’s own once-cherished principles. Here’s a rundown.- Abducted Ukrainian children.
- Lawless deportations.
- Evidence-free arrests.
- Decimating USAID.
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Bulwark: How to Think (and Act) Like a Dissident Movement
- Seeing Like a Dissident
I was wrong about one big thing in 2024: I did not realize that most American institutions—the media, the legal world, big business, universities, the tech sector—would immediately capitulate to Trump. - The Near Term
Winning in 2026 will not be sufficient to stop the authoritarian push; but it is necessary. - Solidarity
The last piece of the puzzle is leadership and solidarity. The dissident movement needs a leader. AOC has been the primary person to step up, though Chris Murphy and a few others have been banging the drum.
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Whoever this leader is, she will be imperfect. In addition to being imperfect, she will not be everyone’s first choice. If you are a Paul Ryan-style conservative, you will have many disagreements with, say, AOC. If you are a progressive and Mark Cuban becomes the leader of the opposition, you will have many disagreements with him.Hear me when I say this: There can be no purity tests in the pro-democracy opposition.
You are either against Trump, or not. If you are against Trump then the anti-Trump movement must operate in solidarity.
- Seeing Like a Dissident
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Robert Reich: How to organize an “empty chair” town hall for your Republican representative
If you have a Republican representative and you invite them but they refuse to attend
The following appeared in The Talbot Spy of March 23, 2025, as a letter to the editor from Wilson Dean:On Saturday, March 22nd, 800 people filled the Mace Lane Middle School in Cambridge, MD, to capacity for a Town Hall to discuss President Trump’s policies and District 1 Representative Andy Harris’ role in supporting them.
Harris represents Cambridge, MD. He was invited but refused to attend, leading to the placement of a large milk carton on the stage with ‘MIA” and “Missing” in large letters.
Throughout the meeting Representative Harris was referred to as “AWOL Andy.”
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NBC: Trump targets lawyers who he says file ‘frivolous’ lawsuits against his administration
A new memo from President Donald Trump that authorized the attorney general and the homeland security secretary to sanction law firms that file lawsuits they deem “frivolous” is a major escalation of his intensifying assault on law firms, legal experts and former Justice Department officials told NBC News.
The presidential memorandum, “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court,” also ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to recommend revoking attorneys’ security clearances or terminating law firms’ federal contracts if she deems their lawsuits against the administration “unreasonable” or “vexatious.”
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Jeffrey Goldberg: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
WSJ: Top Trump Officials Debated War Plans on Unclassified Chat Shared With Journalist
Texts on Signal encrypted messaging service revealed disagreements about whether to strike Houthis in Yemen
TNR: Hegseth’s Own Words Come Back to Haunt Him After Texting War Plans
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accidentally texted war plans to a journalist in a jaw-dropping error.
Borowitz Report: Americans Demand Breathalyzer Be Attached to Pete Hegseth’s Phone
The Atlantic: A Conversation With Jeffrey Goldberg About His Extraordinary Scoop
How The Atlantic’s editor in chief found himself in a group chat with Trump-administration officials who were planning an attack on Yemen
The Trump administration has provided many jaw-dropping moments, but few have been as shocking as editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s scoop published today. Goldberg reported on how he was inadvertently added to a discussion of a military strike on Houthi militias in Yemen, conducted over the encrypted messaging app Signal. In essence, a reporter was invited to listen while the nation’s top security officials weighed and debated a military action, and was sent detailed information about the strike.
Politico: Hegseth disputes he texted war plans
The Defense secretary attacked the journalist who was mistakenly added to a Signal chat with national security officials, but did not dispute its existence.
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“You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes,” an uncharacteristically angry Hegseth said about Goldberg, a well-regarded Washington reporter and editor. “This is a guy who peddles in garbage.”NY Times: If Pete Hegseth Had Any Honor, He Would Resign
I don’t know how Pete Hegseth can look service members in the eye. He’s just blown his credibility as a military leader.
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ProPublica: NIH Ends Future Funding to Study the Health Effects of Climate Change
It’s unclear whether the guidance will impact active grants, but it appears to halt opportunities for future studies. One climate health expert said the directive would have a “devastating” impact on much-needed research.
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Above the Law: Trump, Tariffs, And ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’
How does someone invest in an environment like this?
Suppose you’re the chief executive officer of an automobile company.
You’ve done precisely what NAFTA (and the slightly revised version of NAFTA, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) suggested you should do. To minimize the costs in your supply chain, you have a factory in Canada that manufactures tires. You have a factory in Mexico that manufactures engines. And you do the final assembly of your vehicles in the United States.
Many of the components of your automobiles cross national lines — between the U.S., Mexico, and China — many times.
The Trump administration says that it wants you to manufacture vehicles entirely in the United States. This might make sense; it might not. The decision depends in part on the tariffs that are in effect.
Donald Trump announces on January 20 that the United States will impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting February 1.
If that’s true, then it might make sense to build tire and engine factories in the United States. But those factories will cost a ton of money to build, and they won’t get built overnight. You start thinking about how best to structure your business.
On February 1, Trump signs an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico set to begin on February 4. Okay. You can start thinking about how to structure your business.
On February 3, Trump agrees to a 30-day pause on the Canadian and Mexican tariffs.
On February 27, Trump announces that the tariffs will be enforced starting March 4.
On March 4, the tariffs take effect (with an exception for certain Canadian energy imports).
On March 5, Trump announces a one-month exemption on the tariffs for U.S. automakers.
On March 6, Trump extends the delay on the 25% tariffs for many other goods until April 2.
On March 10, Ontario imposes a surcharge on some electricity entering the United States; on the morning of March 11, Trump says he’ll retaliate by adding another 25% to the steel and aluminum tariffs; on the afternoon of March 11, Ontario suspends its surcharge; Trump in turn undoes his proposed retaliation. We’ve made it all the way to the night of March 11.How does someone invest in an environment like this?
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Wired: How to Enter the US With Your Digital Privacy Intact
Crossing into the United States has become increasingly dangerous for digital privacy. Here are a few steps you can take to minimize the risk of Customs and Border Protection accessing your data.
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Fast Company: Why Trump is so upset about his ‘purposefully distorted’ Colorado portrait
War is raging in the Middle East, peace is uncertain in Europe, and investors and consumers are responding to threats of tariffs with sell-offs and boycotts. But President Donald Trump is focused on what matters to him: his self-image.
Like a friend asking you to untag them from a photo on social media that they find unflattering, Trump isn’t happy with an artist’s depiction of him—and wants the painting taken down.
“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves,” Trump wrote in a social media post Sunday about the painting, which was added in 2019 to a collection of presidential portraits at the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver. He claimed the portrait “was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before.”
The portrait was painted by Sarah Boardman, a Colorado Springs artist who told the Denver Post in 2019 that she painted both Trump’s and former President Barack Obama’s portraits to appear intentionally apolitical.
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Dan Rather: A Supreme Test for Trump
Why you should care about a judicial election in Wisconsin
April Fool’s Day might bring some needed levity to these dark days, but you are not likely to find much of it in Wisconsin — too much is at stake on April 1 with an election to fill a seat on the state’s Supreme Court. Early voting began last week.The election, in a swing state that Donald Trump won by less than 1 percent, is the first major race since Trump took office. Some are calling it an early referendum on the president’s second term. Things are not looking all that good for the president.
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Trump has endorsed Schimel and with predictable hyperbole denounced his opponent, Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford. “If she wins, the Movement to restore our Nation will bypass Wisconsin,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
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Steward Beckham: The Fragmentation of Black America
Rethinking the way appeals to understanding racism in America assume a solidarity within the Black community that may be gone.
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AP: Trump administration invokes state secrets privilege in case over deportations under wartime law
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday invoked a “state secrets privilege” and refused to give a federal judge any additional information about the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law — a case that has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension with the federal courts.
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AOC: Photos from the road
We have been hitting the road hard these last few days to connect with working people who have been abandoned by their Republican members of Congress.
Bernie and I held five rallies across three states in three days and were joined by 86,847 people of all walks of life.
We started the tour off in Las Vegas, Nevada. We rallied with 3,287 Nevadans against the oligarchy in this country, where we were joined by Rep. Steven Horsford, a former member of the Culinary Workers Union.
Then we went to Tempe, Arizona where even the overflow section had an overflow section! 15,000 folks joined us to fight for our future.
The next stop on the tour was Greeley, Colorado, where GOP Congressman Gabe Evans has refused to hold a town hall. Greeley has a population of 108,000 — and 11,300 of those Coloradans took time to join us on Friday.
Then it was onto Denver, Colorado where we were joined by 34,000 folks who were ready to roll up their sleeves! It was Bernie’s biggest rally ever and bigger than any Trump has ever had in Denver.
And finally the last stop was Tucson, Arizona. On a beautiful Saturday, 23,260 people turned out — making it the largest political rally in Arizona history. We were joined by Rep. Greg Casar, the Chair of the House Progressive Caucus.
In spite of what Trump wants you to believe, we are not powerless. All over this country, in both Democratic and Republican districts, people are ready to fight back and defend our democracy. They deserve leaders who will stand with them.Something special is happening. Together, we are building a movement for transformative politics in this country that is rooted in social, economic, racial, and environmental justice.
In solidarity,
Alexandria
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Borowitz Report: Elon Musk Trapped Inside Self-locking Cybertruck
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Disaster struck the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Monday after Elon Musk and his team of teenage aides became trapped inside a self-locking Cybertruck.The DOGE crew found themselves imprisoned in the vehicle after pulling into the parking lot of the Education Department, which they had come to dismantle.
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The Onion: Trump Orders All Children Born Under Biden To Be Renamed After Confederate Generals