Author: sauer@technologists.com

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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Dan Rather: Revelations

Sarah Inama teaches sixth grade. Like many teachers, she has adorned her classroom with posters and signs meant to inspire her students. One of those posters depicts hands of various hues with the text “Everyone is welcome here.”

In January, Inama was told that the poster violates school district policy and that she must take it down. The policy “ensures that classrooms remain neutral.” The school district informed Inama that the poster is considered a “personal opinion” and that “everyone is welcome here” is not something everyone believes.

Though she took down the poster immediately, after reflecting on what happened, she put it back up a few days later. In an email to her principal, Inama explained, “I don’t agree that this is a personal opinion. I feel that this is the basis of public education.”

For now, the poster remains on her classroom wall, but it must be gone by the end of the school year, or she could face repercussions for insubordination.
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Public Notice: How #TeslaTakedown is bringing the fight to Musk

While the Trump administration and DOGE recklessly dismantle the federal government, millions of Americans are outraged and looking for ways to hold the Trump administration accountable. Considering Elon Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of a major car company — Tesla — resistance is increasingly focused on how to disrupt his marquee business.

Going by the moniker of #TeslaTakedown, activists and regular citizens around the nation (and world) have been showing up to Tesla showrooms to protest Musk’s actions and DOGE generally. What started as small protests have grown to well-attended demonstrations in many different states. These protests, as well as random acts of vandalism that Tesla car owners and dealerships have experienced, have clearly ruffled the feathers of Trump and Musk.

WSJ: Meet the Former Tesla Die-Hards Now Selling Their Shares

Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration turns off some loyal investors; stock is down more than 40% this year

Wired: The FBI Is Investigating Attacks on Tesla as ‘Domestic Terrorism.’ Here’s Why That Matters

The domestic terrorism designation could give law enforcement sweeping authority to surveil people protesting against Elon Musk’s role in the US federal government, civil liberties experts warn.
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Beschloss: What Trump Can’t Do

Nine facts that show we are still Americans. We will not give in to Trump’s dictatorial regime. We are still human. We will decide our own fate.

1. Trump can’t take away our anger.
2. He can’t stop us from using our minds.
3. He can’t stop us from reading or writing or consuming knowledge and beauty.
4. He can’t hide his fraudulence.
5. He can’t make us hate a free and democratic America.
6. He can’t convince us that our allies are really our enemies.
7. He can’t make us stop loving.
8. He can’t stop us from realizing our collective power.
9. Trump cannot last.

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Bulwark: ‘We Won’t Know It’s a Different Country’

Trump is causing incredible harm. Whether we learn to live with it matters.

Another normal day in Trumplandia, where the president is scheduled to start feeding the Department of Education into the wood chipper today.

In yesterday’s newsletter, Bill quoted Philip Larkin’s “Homage to a Government,” on Britain’s quiet post-WWII retrenchment: “Next year we are to bring all the soldiers home for lack of money, and it is all right.”

I want to dwell briefly on another line from the same poem: “Our children will not know it’s a different country.”

The damage being done today, the scope of the global cruelty and tragedy, is hard to take in. It is the sort of stain that should be remembered. Will it be?
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These days, those who don’t back Trump like to talk about “touching the stove.” If the American public couldn’t be talked out of its complacent, decadent willingness to give the guy another spin at the wheel, maybe they can at least be shocked out of it. Maybe veterans will turn on him once they see the cuts to the VA, or retirees will revolt when they can’t get a person on the line to help with their Social Security payments.

But even if this does happen, that doesn’t mean putting things back together will be simple. Whether it will even be possible remains to be seen.
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NPR: ‘Segregated facilities’ are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts

After a recent change by the Trump administration, the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.

The segregation clause is one of several identified in a public memo issued by the General Services Administration last month, affecting all civil federal agencies. The memo explains that it is making changes prompted by President Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion, which repealed an executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 regarding federal contractors and nondiscrimination. The memo also addresses Trump’s executive order on gender identity.
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Axios: Navajo Code Talkers disappear from military websites after Trump DEI order

Articles about the renowned Native American Code Talkers have disappeared from some military websites, with several broken URLs now labeled “DEI.”

Why it matters: From 1942 to 1945, the Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in every major Marine Corps operation in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

They were critical to securing America’s victory at Iwo Jima.

Driving the news: Axios identified at least 10 articles mentioning the Code Talkers that had disappeared from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense websites as of Monday.

How it works: The Defense department’s URLs were amended with the letters DEI, suggesting they were removed following President Trump’s executive order ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The Internet Archive shows the deleted Army pages were live as recently as November, with many visible until February or March. None are shown with error messages until Trump took office.

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We’re Well Past Alarm Bells

The Trump administration is mocking court orders, laying the groundwork for political retribution, and declaring open war on the rule of law.
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In Federalist No. 51, defending the separation of powers and its pitting of ambition against ambition and its connecting the interest of office-holders with the constitutional rights of the place, James Madison explained:

It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

We’re not angels. And rule by angels isn’t available to us. To avoid anarchy, we need a government that can control our potentially violent passions. And we need the rule of law and its institutional buttresses like the separation of powers to enable us to live in freedom, not despotism.
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Niall Ferguson: A User’s Guide to Wrecking the Global Financial System

Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E is crashing the US housing market

Blame Canada

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Kevin Kruse on why Trump 2.0 is worse than he expected

“I didn’t think they would take this bold of a leap into deeply unconstitutional waters, but they have.”

“I want to stress how far off the rails this is in terms of not just our norms and our expectations but our laws,” Kruse said. “There’s a lot that’s deeply unconstitutional here. I get that they’re trying to flood the zone and overwhelm the opposition, but the opposition shouldn’t let itself be overwhelmed. It shouldn’t accept this as the new normal, which is what the administration wants us to do.

“What we see from Musk and the rest of Trump’s crew is that they are making financial gains off this,” Kruse said. “Musk just wrestled an FAA program away from Verizon and gave it to his own company. They’re doing all they can to profit from this. The tax cut alone is a good example. Those people in the cabinet are the ones who are going to benefit from more tax cuts for the wealthy.”
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