Writers and Editors

• The Resistance Is Not Coming to Save You. It’s Tuning Out. (Michael Schaffer, Politico, 11-15-24) The first Trump administration sparked waves of public activism and aggressive media coverage. This time, not so much. Trump returns to office with far more radical ambitions than he had in 2016, and much more coherent plans for achieving them. If you’re against gutting environmental regulations, bulk-firing public servants, doing away with Obamacare or instituting mass deportations, public fury is a way to push back — or at least stiffen the spines of Democrats who might collaborate with the administration. The left will have to wait for actual presidential deeds to drive the backlash. For better or worse, those will happen soon enough.

And they did.  Thank you, Sherilynn Ifill for the following.

• Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? (Sherilynn Ifill, Sherrilyn’s Newsletter, 2-9-25)

Read her piece, for an articulate call to action, which also links to the following checkmarks on Trump's damage-to-do list.

• Federal judge blocks DOGE from accessing sensitive U.S. Treasury Department material (NPR, 2-8-25) A federal judge early Saturday blocked Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records that contain sensitive personal data such as Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans. The case, filed in federal court in New York City, alleges the Trump administration allowed Musk's team access to the Treasury Department's central payment system in violation of federal law.
---The biggest Ponzi scheme in history (Robert Reich, 3-6-25) In response to Elon Musk’s comment that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Reich argues, "If you want to see a real Ponzi scheme, look no further than the crypto investments Musk and Trump have hyped."

• Judge pauses Trump order to put USAID employees on administrative leave (Fatma Tanis, Shannon Bond, Goats and Soda, NPR, 2-7-25) The lawsuit accuses Trump of taking "unconstitutional and illegal" actions in trying to shut down the agency, which was created by Congress in 1961. The case brought by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees, which represent foreign service officers and other USAID employees, is intended to halt the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the agency and freeze most foreign aid.

• Kansas’ Moran, Davids sound alarm on delay of USAID food aid to starving people worldwide (Tim Carpenter, Yahoo, 2-7-25) President Donald Trump said he wanted to shut down USAID, which served as the federal government’s primary provider of development and humanitarian aid worldwide. U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, said there was a moral imperative for the U.S. government to deliver international food aid to starving people. Senator Moran said a freeze on federal funding and change at the U.S. Agency for International Development left $340 million in lifesaving food grown in the United States sitting at domestic ports awaiting delivery to locations around the world where people were starving.

• DOGE sued to follow the law or cease operations (Citizens for Ethics) The so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is operating in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Public Health Association, American Federation of Teachers, Minority Veterans of America, VoteVets Action Fund, Center for Auto Safety, Inc., and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), represented by Democracy Forward and CREW. The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the establishment of DOGE is unlawful, and for the court to force DOGE to comply with the transparency, ethics, records retention and equal representation required under FACA.

   "Currently, DOGE is operating unchecked, without authorization or funding from Congress and is led by unelected billionaires who are not representative of ordinary Americans. DOGE representatives have reportedly already been speaking with agency officials throughout the federal government, and communication is allegedly taking place on Signal, a messaging app known for its auto-delete features."

• Obamacare would be even harder to kill now, but Trump promises to try anyway (Tami Luhby, CNN, 1-7-24) Nearly 60% of adults had a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act in May 2023, close to the highest share since the law was passed in 2010, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll. In November 2024, Trump posted on his Truth Social site that Republicans should “never give up” trying to terminate the law and that he would replace it with “MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE.”

• Trump’s E.P.A. Seeks to Deny Science That Americans Discovered (Bill McKibben, New Yorker, 2-27-25) Widespread news reports said that the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, has recommended the reversal of the long-standing federal position that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger the public. Trump has said that climate change is a “hoax” and a “scam.” But the proposed reversal would be truly and deeply disgraceful—not just climate denial but basic-science denial. It’s in this country that scientists, funded by or working for the government, came to understand the role of carbon in our atmosphere.

    The Trump Administration is resistant to science in general—an unvaccinated school-aged child died in Texas on Wednesday from the measles, even as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,’s Department of Health and Human Services announced that it was pausing a new COVID-vaccine project.

• The anti-Trump resistance begins to wake in earnest (WaPo, 2-26-25) After an initial period of stunned confusion, protesters are packing meetings, states are suing, and Democrats are preparing for a budget showdown.

• Donald Trump, Reprised (New Yorker, 11-24) What his return to the Presidency reveals about America. George Saunders on our poisoned wells, Rachel Maddow on crooks and thieves,Timothy Snyder on Trump’s fascism, Jia Tolentino on the gender war, Jane Mayer on the coming decades for the Supreme Court, Kelefa Sanneh on Trump and race, Lorrie Moore on the source of Trump’s continued appeal, and more.

• Trump’s Putinization of America(Susan B. Glasser, New Yorker, 2-20-25) It’s not just in foreign policy that the President is turning Russia’s way. In 2018, at a press conference in Helsinki, Trump announced that he accepted Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia did not intervene in American elections, despite our own intelligence agencies’ conclusion to the contrary. Trump’s embrace of America’s adversary (Russia) and rejection of its ally (Zelensky) has been so swift and complete that even top Kremlin officials are astonished.

• How Trump’s Federal-Aid Fiasco Is Testing the Separation of Powers (Tyler Foggatt, New Yorker, 1-30-25) “We are in an era of a real reckoning with the relationship of the President to the other branches of government,” the Harvard Law professor and New Yorker contributor Jeannie Suk Gersen says.

• The Unchecked Authority of Trump’s Immigration Orders (Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker, 1-24-25) The President is recasting migration as a form of “invasion,” broadening his already expansive powers and making anyone in the U.S. who’s undocumented a potential target.

• Killing People Through Corruption: More Examples from Aviation. (James Fallows, Breaking the News, 3-3-25) Some of the assault on governing institutions comes from ignorance and zeal. Some is just corrupt. Together this will lead to deaths.

    NOAA and its National Weather Service have produced ever-more precise tools to help aviators avoid these dangers. Now the Doge team has decided that their staffs must be cut. Airlines in the US are still the safest way you can travel. But the odds are not as good as they were six weeks ago, and they will get worse.

    Starlink for the FAA is dangerous and corrupt. It is a rush to judgment, in a system that prizes cautious deliberation. And it is naked self-dealing, favoring a company controlled by Elon Musk.
    Defunding NOAA and the National Weather Service is dangerous and corrupt. Among other consequences, it jeopardizes probably the biggest single advance in aviation safety, which is ever more-accurate weather awareness. Ongoing cuts at the FAA will turn the aviation infrastructure from something we take for granted into something we need to worry about.

• ‘Frankly Insane’: Trump’s Plan to Ship Migrants to Guantanamo Could Quickly Collapse (Ben Fox, Politico 2-5-25) President Donald Trump plans to send up to 30,000 migrants to the detention facility. Guantanamo has been used to hold people who are coming to the United States. It’s never been used as a place to send people who’ve been in the United States, especially those who have been lawfully in the United States at some point. A reality check from a top lawyer who knows Guantanamo. “Shortsighted policymakers think they found a solution, and they have ended up creating a problem for which they have no exit strategy. That’s exactly what they’re doing again.”

• Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order Nationwide (Campbell Robertson and Mattathias Schwartz, NY Times, 2-5-25) The nationwide injunction, from a Maryland case, is more permanent than last month’s restraining order from a judge in Seattle. The Judge's preliminary injunction indefinitely blocked President Trump’s attempt to unilaterally eliminate automatic U.S. citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants on U.S. soil.

• Federal judge blocks DOGE from accessing sensitive U.S. Treasury Department material (Associated Press, 2-8-25) Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, was created to discover and eliminate what the Trump administration has deemed to be wasteful government spending. "This unelected group, led by the world's richest man, is not authorized to have this information, and they explicitly sought this unauthorized access to illegally block payments that millions of Americans rely on, payments for health care, child care and other essential programs," said New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office filed the lawsuit, said DOGE's access to the Treasury Department's data raises security problems and the possibility for an illegal freeze in federal funds.

• CNN's 5 Things AM (3-4-25) "The Trump administration is working to develop a cryptocurrency reserve, part of the president's pledge to make the US the "Crypto Capital of the World." However, some prominent tech and crypto leaders have criticized the plan to direct the government to stockpile bitcoin, ethereum and three other tokens. Analysts say it has raised obvious questions of conflict of interest, considering that the company that owns Trump's social media network recently made clear its plans to invest $250 billion in the cryptocurrency industry. Other critics have likened Trump's plan to a government bailout of crypto, an asset class that just experienced its worst trading month in two years. Bitcoin, a market bellwether, fell 18% in February — its steepest drop since June 2022."
---Even the crypto bros don’t love Trump’s proposed crypto reserve (Allison Morrow, CNN, 3-4-25)
---The crypto president has some ideas for your tax dollars (CNN) The company that owns Trump’s social media network, and where Trump is the largest shareholder, recently made clear its plans to invest $250 billion in the cryptocurrency industry.

• FBI agents sue over Justice Dept. effort to ID employees involved in Trump-related investigations (Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer, AP News, 2-4-25) "FBI agents who participated in investigations related to President Donald Trump have sued over Justice Department efforts to develop a list of employees involved in those inquiries that they fear could be a precursor to mass firings.
     "Two lawsuits, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington on behalf of anonymous agents, demand an immediate halt to the collection and potential dissemination of names of investigators who participated in probes of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. One of the complaints says agents were also asked to fill out surveys about their participation in the investigation into Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida."

• Protesters in cities across the US rally against Trump’s policies, Project 2025 and Elon Musk (MORGAN LEE, AP News, 2-5-25) Demonstrators gathered in cities across the U.S. on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Websites and accounts across social media issued calls for action, with messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.” The protests were a result of a movement that has organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day.

• Amid Concern Over Trump Order, New Yorkers Rally to Support Trans Youth (Alyce McFaddenNell Gallogly and Wesley Parnell, NY Times, 2-8-25) Thousands of protesters in Union Square called for action against Trump's executive order that threatens to withhold federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care.

• The Trump administration is said to have dropped a lawsuit over emissions of a toxic chemical in Louisiana. Lisa Friedman, NY Times, 3-3-25) The 2023 lawsuit was among several enforcement actions taken by the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of poor and minority communities that have disproportionately borne the brunt of toxic pollution

• Federal Employees Protest Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ Offer With Spoon Emojis (Ryan Mac and Kate Conger, NY times, 2-5-25) Some federal employees have a new symbol for their resistance to President Trump’s and Elon Musk’s radical overhaul of the U.S. government: a spoon. Last week, in an email with the subject line “Fork in the Road,” the administration urged federal workers to consider resigning from their posts and said they would be paid through September — a bid to rapidly shrink the size of the work force.

• Democratic Lawmakers Denied Entry to the Department of Education (NY Times, 2-8-25) In a striking display of the limits being placed on congressional authority in the first weeks of the new administration, several Democratic lawmakers were denied entry to the U.S. Department of Education on Friday.

    “Get out of the way,” Representative Maxine Waters of California told a man blocking more than a dozen House Democrats from the doors at the department’s Washington offices. The standoff follows a campaign promise by President Trump to dismantle and eventually shut down the Department of Education, which he has characterized as an agency injecting extreme ideology on race and gender into the nation’s public schools. “We will move everything back to the states, where it belongs,” he said during one campaign speech.

• 10 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency (Robert Reich, video, on Facebook).

• An intriguing analysis has been circulating online regarding the psychological aspects of Zelensky’s meeting with Trump and Vance, conducted using ChatGPT. (Yuliia Vyshnevska's Post on Facebook)

• The shame of it (Robert Reich, 3-2-25) But it's not our shame) After Trump and Vance’s disgraceful treatment of President Zelensky on Friday, some of you might feel ashamed of America. You might even feel ashamed to be an American. The proper locus of shame is Trump and Vance. The fundamental choice has not been as stark since World War II: democracy and freedom, or dictatorship and tyranny. Trump and his sycophants are siding with the latter.

• Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? Sherrilyn Ifill's call to action.

Scroll to the bottom of her post for the names of organizations to follow and/or support.

• NPR News Now A roundup of the day's top stories in under five minutes. New podcast episodes each weekday. (Bookmark that, to return to for later roundups.)
• Trump-Musk news (ongoing links to stories, Washington Post)  Keep this link open so you can follow stories as they appear.

• Spotlight on President Trump Ongoing news, New York Times.

• Section on Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine (many sources)

---The Shame of It (Robert Reich).

   Reich's tips on How to help the people in Ukraine. Here's the practical part:
  "Europe and all free people around the world must rally at this time of American emergency. If the United States won’t seize Russia’s frozen assets and put them into an account for Ukraine to pay for further arms, Europeans must do this and let Ukraine buy from European defense contractors.
    "If you yourself want to help Ukrainians, you might consider United 24 (the Ukrainian state platform for donations, including many important projects); RAZOM (an American NGO, tax-deductible for U.S. citizens, that cooperates with Ukrainian NGOs to support civilians); Documenting Ukraine (an initiative that helps give Ukrainians a voice, also tax-deductible for Americans); and Come Back Alive (a Ukrainian NGO that supports soldiers on the battlefield and veterans)."

TRUMP, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. AND VACCINATIONS
• ‘Deadly consequences’: Health agencies reel from thousands of job cuts while critical research grants remain on hold (Meg Tirrell, CNN,2-26-25) A March meeting of outside advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration to discuss the composition of flu vaccines for this fall’s flu season has been canceled, a member of the advisory committee told CNN. 

---Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Prohibits Federal Funding for COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in Schools (The White House, 2-14-25) President Trump is dedicated to ensuring that American students are not forced to choose between their education and their medical freedom.     President Trump is fulfilling his campaign promise: “I will not allow schools to impose COVID vaccine mandates…”

     "In President Trump’s first week in office, he reinstated service members who were dismissed for refusing the COVID vaccine, with full back pay and benefits.”

    "President Trump is as a staunch advocate for parental rights, ensuring families have the primary role in shaping their children’s educational journey, free from undue bureaucratic mandates.”
---I’ll Never Forget What Kennedy Did During Samoa’s Measles Outbreak (Brian Deer, NY Times, 11-25-24)

    "In November 2019, when an epidemic of measles was killing children and babies in Samoa, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who in recent days became Donald Trump’s pick to lead the department of Health and Human Services — sent the prime minister of Samoa a four-page letter. In it, he suggested the measles vaccine itself may have caused the outbreak.

    "He claimed that the vaccine might have “failed to produce antibodies” in vaccinated mothers sufficient to provide infants with immunity, that it perhaps provoked “the evolution of more virulent measles strains” and that children who received the vaccine may have inadvertently spread the virus to other children. “Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance,” he added, writing in his role as the chairman of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group. At the time of his letter, 16 people, many of them younger than 2, were already reported dead.

---Trump administration yanks CDC flu vaccine campaign (Will Stone, NPR, 2-19-25) The move comes during Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s first full week on the job as head of HHS. The "Wild to Mild" flu vaccination campaign sought to encourage people to get the flu vaccine. In particular, the campaign aimed to communicate that flu vaccination can lessen symptoms and the chance of getting severely ill, even if it doesn't prevent someone from catching the flu.
     "The Trump administration's decision to pull the campaign comes in the midst of a brutal flu season that's still raging. More than 50,000 patients were admitted to hospitals for influenza during the week ending Feb. 8, the highest level in 15 years."

• White House will decide which journalists get access to it in an unprecedented step (Justine McDaniel, Politics, WaPo, 2-25-25) The Trump administration will determine which journalists participate in the White House press pool, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday, breaking with nearly a century of practice in which the independent White House Correspondents’ Association has overseen the rotating group of news outlets that cover the president in Washington and on travels. Journalists and media critics warned that White House control of the press pool threatens the foundations of a free press

---White House Correspondents' Association Statement on White House Announcement on Press Pool (2-25-25)

   “This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps....
    “Since its founding in 1914, the WHCA has sought to ensure that the reporters, photographers, producers and technicians who actually do the work – 365 days of every year – decide amongst themselves how these rotations are operated, so as to ensure consistent professional standards and fairness in access on behalf of all readers, viewers and listeners.
     “To be clear, the White House did not give the WHCA board a heads up or have any discussions about today’s announcements. But the WHCA will never stop advocating for comprehensive access, full transparency and the right of the American public to read, listen to and watch reports from the White House, delivered without fear or favor.”

• No one crowned Donald Trump king (Svante Myrick, The Hill, 2-24-25)

   Last week, Trump posted a fake Time magazine cover picturing himself wearing a crown and a smug grin with the proclamation, 'LONG LIVE THE KING!'

   "The Founding Fathers 'went to war to free Americans from the rule of kings. But Trump and the MAGA movement have basically abandoned any commitment to constitutional democracy. They have cheered as he has brazenly broken the law and undermined our national security by allowing Elon Musk and his wrecking crew to pillage crucial computer systems and access Americans’ most sensitive private information.
     "Some of Trump’s actions have been put on hold by federal courts, which is fueling the Trump team’s resentment at having to follow the law. When judges started questioning flagrant lawbreaking overseen by Musk, Vice President JD Vance took to X to claim, 'Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.' Vance may have skipped some constitutional law classes, because he is missing a keystone of our constitutional system of checks and balances."

• Trump humiliated again on the world stage by British PM Starmer after France's Macron Interrupted Him (YouTube video, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell)

    "Well, Donald Trump was humiliated once again today in the Oval Office sitting in exactly the same chair where he was humiliated in this same week on Monday. Donald Trump made history on Monday by being the first president of the United States to lie publicly about America's oldest ally, France, with the president of France sitting right beside him. That created the historic humiliation touch seen around the world. President Emmanuel Macron of France actually reached across to put his hand on Donald Trump to stop Donald Trump from lying about France. Donald Trump said that Europe contributed less aid to Ukraine than the United States did. That's a lie. Europe has contributed more than the United States has. Donald Trump once again told the lie that American aid to Ukraine was a donation, but European aid to Ukraine was a loan, and Ukraine was required to pay back France and all the other European countries that invaded Ukraine. And that was a lie that President Macron could not abide. And that is when President Macron had to interrupt him and stop him from continuing to tell that lie.

     Because Donald Trump is not now and never has been educable.

     "Imagine my joy when Donald Trump made the mistake of choosing Andrew Feinberg for the first question in the press conference. A word here about the White House Press Corps. You're heard more criticism of the White House Press Corps on this program over the years than anywhere else on television and so when the White House Press Corps gets it right, I want to be the first to honor that, and Andrew Feinberg got it right today as he has in the past, which is why Andrew Feinberg will be joining us on this program tonight.  

     When Donald Trump made the mistake of calling on Andrew Feinberg for the first question of the press conference, he heard the best questions asked by a White House reporter this year. Thank you, Mr. President. Earlier today, uh, yyou told me that you believe that foreign countries pay tariffs, but Americans who are concerned about higher prices believe, as most people do,that they are paid by consumers and importers when they import things into this country, and that was a lie.
     Three days later, Donald Trump walks into exactly the same humiliation trap in the Oval Office, today with the British prime minister sitting beside him. You know they get their money back. By giving money, we don't get the money back. Biden made a deal. He put in $350 billion and I thought it was a very unfair situation. We're not getting all of ours. I mean, quite a bit of ours was gifted. It was given. There were some liens, but mainly it was gifted actually.

    Did you see that, the left hand--that's the interruption hand that the French president used. The British minister's left hand goes toward Donald Trump, but he's British. He's British. He's not touchy feely. He's not gonna touch him. But he does interrupt him, just like the French president did. Once again Donald Trump told the deranged lie that the aid supplied to Ukraine by the British will have to be paid back by Ukraine. And that is the only thing Donald Trump said today.

    That forced the British prime minister to actually interrupt him. The British prime minister did not see it as his role to correct Donald Trump for lying about the amount of American aid supplied to Ukraine. Donald Trump more than doubles the real number when he accuses Joe Biden of providing $350 billion in aid to Ukraine, when in fact it was $119 billion. It's the kind of Trump lie that everyone has grown accustomered to, especially the White House press corps. Of course Donald Trump will lie about the numbers, he always does."

   And so it goes on...You can listen to it here, resuming at Minute 3:20 and ending about thirteen minutes later.

 
• What the Trump-Musk carnival act fails to realize about federal workers (WaPo, 2-19-25)

   Someday, Elon Musk will understand what public servants do all day long: They keep us safe.
---Trump administration plans for sharp FEMA cuts fuel worries for some Republicans, state officials (Annie Grayer, CNN, 2-21-25) A developing Trump administration plan for deep staff cuts and drastic changes at the Federal Emergency Management Agency is raising alarm among some state officials and even Republican lawmakers, who worry that it will weaken responses to future disasters. FEMA is just the latest agency on DOGE’s chopping block – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters has been shut down, orders to terminate the Department of Education have been drafted and the US Agency for International Development has had its aid work around the world largely brought to a standstill.
     Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana told CNN that the emergency services that the federal agency provides is critical and cannot be discarded. “Whether FEMA exists or not, there needs to be an agency that provides emergency management services when catastrophes are too big for the state and local community to handle,” he said. “Could there be reforms in FEMA? Absolutely.”
---Trump and Elon Musk are floating 'DOGE dividends.' (NBC News) Low-income Americans might not get the benefits. (The president recently touted the idea, which came to a 30-year-old investor in a dream and caught the attention of Elon Musk on X.
---How NIH research funding works, and why universities are worried ( Susan Svrluga and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, WaPo, 2-11-25) What the Trump administration’s decision to cut overhead funding for biomedical research means for universities across the country. Scientists say the reduced federal support could have a devastating effect on critical research, shutting down clinical trials, labs and experiments, and preventing lifesaving breakthroughs in medicine. But critics argue the new NIH policy would bring sanity to a funding system rife with costs that should be absorbed by institutions.

• A Trump outrage that stands apart (David Ignatius, WaPo, 2-19-25)

  The president blames Ukraine for its own brutalization.

  Tuesday was a dark day for the United States. President Donald Trump and his administration embraced Russia as a peace partner without demanding that it pay any price for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And then, in a statement that turned morality upside down, the president blamed Ukraine for causing the war.

• How the Trump-Zelensky Oval Office meeting spiraled into chaos (video transcription, Michael Birnbaum, Natalie Allison, Matt Viser, and Jacqueline Alemany, WaPo, 3-1-25)

White House officials were expecting a positive meeting and said they had little reason to anticipate animosity before things deteriorated.
    “This is going to be great television,” Trump declared. “I will say that.”
    Waltz said that he told Zelensky, “Look, Mr. President, time is not on your side here. Time is not on your side on the battlefield. Time is not on your side in terms of the world situation and most importantly, U.S. aid and the taxpayers, tolerance is not unlimited.”
    The national security adviser said that Zelensky “has not gotten the memo that this is a new sheriff in town.”
    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who just last year rebuked Vance’s position on Ukraine and urged the then-senator to take a trip to the war-torn country before taking a position, said during a Fox News interview on Friday after the spat that Zelensky would have to “fundamentally change or go.” But Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was the rare GOP official who denounced Trump in a post on X for “walking away from our allies and embracing Putin, a threat to democracy and U.S. values around the world.”

   Tuesday was a dark day for the United States. President Donald Trump and his administration embraced Russia as a peace partner without demanding that it pay any price for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And then, in a statement that turned morality upside down, the president blamed Ukraine for causing the war.

• Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE (Associated Press, via WTOP, 2-21-25) More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”
    The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them.
    “These highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social Security, veterans’ services, tax filing, health care, disaster relief, student aid, and other critical services,” the resignation letter states. “Their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and American’s data less safe.”

• ‘They Were Careless People’: Taking Moments to Tear Down What Has Taken Lifetimes to Create. (James Fallows, 2-25-25) The zealots of Doge and Project 2025 are out to ‘cut waste.’ They will certainly cost lives: An example from aviation. Aviation as a ‘marker species’: Systems that work only when many other systems are working too. Everyone complains about US airlines. But the system as a whole, especially its safety record, has been a phenomenal achievement.
    "I’m talking about the sudden attack on part of the invisible infrastructure that has kept air travelers so safe in the skies. Reminder: before last month’s helicopter-airliner collision over the Potomac, the US had gone nearly 16 years without a major airline crash. Through those years, US airlines conducted well over 10 billion passenger-journeys. A total of two people died in airline accidents through that time. ... in the spasm of Executive Orders that Donald Trump glanced at, signed, and held up for the camera in his first days back behind the Resolute Desk.

• The Trump Administration Trashes Europe and NATO (Dexter Filkins, The Lede, New Yorker, 2-20-25) Speeches delivered by J. D. Vance and Pete Hegseth were not just verbal lashings of America’s allies but a wholesale rejection of eighty years of U.S. foreign policy.

• Something is shifting. Scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder posted on Bluesky yesterday. (Heather Cox Richardson, 2-23-25)

    “They are still breaking things and stealing things. And they will keep trying to break and to steal. But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading. Nervous Musk, Trump, Vance have all been outclassed in public arguments these last few days. Government failure, stock market crash, and dictatorial alliances are not popular. People are starting to realize that there is no truth here beyond the desire for personal wealth and power.”
      "Rather than backing down on their unpopular programs, Trump and the MAGA Republicans are intensifying their behavior as if trying to grab power before it slips away.
     "Trump’s blanket pardons of the people convicted for violent behavior in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol were highly unpopular, with 83% of Americans opposed to those pardons. Even those who identify as Republican-leaning oppose those pardons 70 to 27 percent. And yet, on February 20, the Trump Justice Department expanded those pardons to cover gun and drug charges against two former January 6 defendants that were turned up during Federal Bureau of Investigation searches related to the January 6 attack."

• Authors Guild Condemns Trump Administration’s Threats to Prosecute Journalists Reporting on Facts (Authors Guild). Trump administration ignoring the First Amendment and "freedom of the press".

• Trump and Musk praise each other, promise ‘hundreds of billions’ in cuts during Fox interview (WaPo, 2-18-25)
• After U.S.-Russian Talks, Trump Blames Invasion On Ukraine (YouTube video)

See more on Ukraine below.

• How COVID Pushed a Generation of Young People to the Right (Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, 2-18-25) Research suggests that pandemics are more likely to reduce rather than build trust in scientific and political authorities

• Anxiety Mounts Among Social Security Recipients as DOGE Troops Settle In (Eli Hager, ProPublica, 2-22-25) “Social Security will not be touched,” Trump said, echoing a promise he has been making for years. Despite his eagerness to explode treaties, shutter entire government agencies and abandon decades-old ways of doing things, the president understands that Social Security benefits for seniors are sacrosanct. Yet Elon Musk’s team has descended on an already understaffed Social Security Administration, which now faces further workforce cuts and closures of vital local offices. The consequences could be significant for millions of the most vulnerable Americans.
---Protesters at Republican Event Told 'Your Voice Is Meaningless' (Natalie Venegas, Newsweek, 2-23-25) rotesters at an Idaho town hall hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) were told on Saturday that their "voice is meaningless" as concerns remain by some over President Donald Trump's administration and political agenda.

     Saturday's protest comes as Trump has made several policy decisions including the creation of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an unofficial agency established through executive order operating as a White House task force, which has pursued an aggressive initiative to cut the size and scope of the federal government. The president has also signed several executive orders enacting his conservative agenda, quickly fulfilling campaign promises with several immigration-related orders, ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, and orders related to the economy and energy production.

• State Dept. orders cancellation of news subscriptions around the world (Washington Post, 3-18-25) Embassies and consulates were told to terminate subscriptions to the New York Times, the Associated Press and others.

• USAID update, with Dr. Atul Gawande and Dr. Jeremy Faust. (Inside Medicine, 2-25-24. Listen or read the transcript.)

    An in-depth and up-to-date deep-dive on where things really stand in the Trump administration's assault on USAID, which has long been one of the United States' greatest assets.
    When Elon Musk said, hey, we can take $2 trillion out of $7 trillion, budget and it'll all be, you know, waste and efficiency. He was happy to buy into that. Why is he looking for the savings, President Trump? Because he wants to he wants to sustain the 2017 tax cuts and there is no revenue... President Trump came in very clear that he wanted to embrace a theory described in Project 2025 of dismantling significant parts of government. He's long been bought into the view that you can dramatically shrink the government....
   "Mad men are doing surgery on USAID with a chainsaw. And it is predictably now near death. Marco Rubio has not been able to stop it. He is both beset from within and outside and has decided to go along with it just in the same way that he's decided to 100% reverse his position on Ukraine and now side with the idea that Russia is the is the party that the U.S. needs to be most aligned with.
    "This is the test kitchen or the tools that Doge and President Trump have used to decimate an independent agency and are bringing to other independent agencies.... Our system of independent agencies has meant that when NIH makes discoveries, when FDA evaluates products,when CDC issues guidance, when USAID puts feet on the ground to solve polio eradication, those are done with the best technical people and shielded from political interference at the ground level of good decision making. What's happening across the US government is dismantling of a system of independence, allowing political interference in something where that whole ecosystem has enabled a doubling of the human lifespan. This is dangerous. I cannot tell you how dangerous this is."
• The Trump administration is putting USAID staffers on leave worldwide and firing at least 1,600 (AP, WTOP, 2-23-25)

   “As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally,” according to the notices sent to USAID workers that were viewed by The Associated Press.
    At the same time, the agency said in the notices to staffers that it was beginning a firing process called reduction in force that would eliminate 2,000 U.S.-based jobs. A version of the notice posted later on USAID’s website put the number of positions to be eliminated lower, at 1,600.

• The Trump Administration Said These Aid Programs Saved Lives. It Canceled Them Anyway.

    (Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, ProPublica, 3-1-25)

The administration conceded that many programs prevent immediate death and should remain online: field hospitals in Gaza, an HIV drug supplier for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syrian refugee food programs, health clinics that combat Ebola in Uganda and most of the landmark President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR.
     However, Rubio and Marocco completely ended nearly 10,000 aid programs in one fell swoop — including those they had granted waivers just days earlier — saying the programs did not align with Trump’s agenda. The move consigns untold numbers of the world’s poorest children, refugees and other vulnerable people to death, according to several senior federal officials. Local authorities have already begun estimating a death toll in the hundreds of thousands. Documents and interviews reveal that the State Department appears to have made the cuts without the careful review it described in court.

• The Strategy Behind Trump’s Defiance of the Law     (Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 2-13-25)  

  His violations follow an old playbook—trigger lawsuits, giving the Supreme Court a chance to declare statutes unconstitutional.   

• Here’s how Trump’s vengeance machine works (Robert Reich, 1-24-25) He’s the mob boss who keeps his hands clean while others do his dirty work.

• The Great Resegregation (Adam Serwer, The Atlantic 2-22-25) The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI are aimed at reversing the civil-rights movement.

• Trump Targets a Growing List of Those He Sees as Disloyal (Luke Broadwater, NY Times, 2-17-25) "In his first month in office, the president has carried out a campaign of retribution that has little analogue in history. He has pulled protective details from former colleagues facing death threats from Iran. He has revoked or threatened to revoke the security clearances of President Biden, members of his administration and dozens of others. His administration has taken steps to target members of the media seen as unfriendly, taken the hatchet to entire agencies perceived as too liberal and fired or investigated government workers deemed disloyal.
     "The lawyer Mark Zaid has represented a wide array of whistle-blowers, both Republicans and Democrats, during multiple administrations. But it was his involvement with the whistle-blower at the center of the first impeachment case against President Trump that drew the president’s ire. “It is more than obvious that Trump is fulfilling the promises that he made and campaigned on, that he would retaliate against those who did him wrong,” he added. Mr. Zaid is on what has become an ever-growing list of President Trump’s perceived enemies. Through the first month of his administration, Mr. Trump and his allies have carried out a campaign of revenge and retribution that has little analogue in American history."
• Trump Is the Weakest and the Whiniest, with Adam Kinzinger (Really American Media)

• Trump begins firings of FAA staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash  (Tara Copp, AP News, 2-17-2025)
---Family files 1st legal claim in deadly midair collision near Reagan National Airport for $250 million

• What you need to know about impoundment and how Trump vows to use it (PBS, 2-6-25)

    Before winning reelection, President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise to shake things up in Washington. In his first two weeks in office, that shakeup has included orders to freeze nearly all foreign aid and, for a chaotic 24 hours or so, all federal grants and loans.
    "While two judges have hit pause on Trump’s federal spending freeze, his administration has signaled the matter is far from resolved. The brewing showdown is over a centuries-old process called “impoundment” in which the president — whose administration is tasked with distributing funds — doesn’t allow congressionally appropriated funding to be spent."
• Trump picks Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to return as top budget official (Fatima Hussein, Chris Rugaber, Josh Boak, and Chris Megerian, Associated Press, on PBS Newshour, 3-23-24) Russell Vought, a Project 2025 architect, likely in line for high-ranking post if Trump wins 2nd term. Trump said Vought, who is known as a Republican hardliner on budget and cultural issues, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government.”

UKRAINE, ZELENSKY, AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

    How you spell the Ukrainian President’s last name matters (CNN, 3-17-22) Have you noticed the discrepancy in how different media outlets spell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s/Zelenskyy's name? 'CNN uses the single “y” spelling for “Zelensky,” while Fox and MSNBC go with a double “y” for “Zelenskyy.” The New York Times and The Washington Post are both single “y” organizations. The Associated Press is a double “y” outlet. Reuters goes in a completely different direction, spelling his last name “Zelenskiy.” The issue is primarily one of transliteration – from the Cyrillic alphabet used in Ukraine to the Latin alphabet we use in America.
    'Zelensky himself has it spelled “Zelenskyy” on his passport. In May 2019 his administration said he preferred that spelling when his name was transliterated from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet.... In the early days of Zelensky’s time in office, his own administration had his name spelled differently on different official releases.'

• Putin’s Three Years of Humiliation (Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 2-24-25) Out of all the ugly and dishonest things that Donald Trump said about Volodymyr Zelensky last week, the ugliest was not dishonest at all. “I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards,” Trump said of Zelensky. “He has no cards. And you get sick of it.”
    "Sick of it. Stop and think about that phrase. Trump inserted it into a stream of falsehoods, produced over several days, many of which he must have known to be untrue. He [Trump] has been lying about the origins of the war, about Zelensky’s popular support, about the levels of U.S. funding for Ukraine, about the extent of European funding, about the status of previous negotiations. But sick of it—that, at least, has the ring of truth. Trump is genuinely bored of the war. He doesn’t understand it. He doesn’t know why it started. He doesn’t know how to stop it. He wants to change the channel and watch something else."

    "But Trump is wrong. Zelensky might not have money, and he might not be a brutal dictator like Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping. Yet he does have other kinds of power. He leads a society that organizes itself, with local leaders who have legitimacy and a tech sector dedicated to victory—a society that has come, around the world, to symbolize bravery. He has a message that moves people to act instead of just scaring them into silence."
• Watch tense Oval Office argument between Zelensky, Trump and Vance (CNN, 2-28-25) President Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky devolved into a shouting match, with the US president telling Ukraine’s leader “make a deal or we’re out” during an angry exchange about the nature of US support, and whether Zelensky had demonstrated enough gratitude.
• Trump Administration Live Updates: European Leaders Line Up to Support Ukraine After Blowup With Trump (Jeanna Smialek and Stephen Castle, NY Times, 3-1-25) President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is meeting with Keir Starmer, the British leader, in London and plans to visit King Charles III and other European leaders on Sunday.

• A Trump outrage that stands apart (David Ignatius, WaPo, 2-19-25) The president blames Ukraine for its own brutalization.

• After U.S.-Russian Talks, Trump Blames Invasion On Ukraine (YouTube, NPR News Now, 2-19-25)

• Trump Says Call With Putin Is Beginning of Ukraine Peace Negotiations (Maggie Haberman,Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Anton Troianovski, NY Times, 2-12-25)
• Trump says Ukraine started the war that’s killing its citizens. What are the facts? (Justin Spike, AP New, 2-19-25).
• When did the Russia-Ukraine War begin? (written and fact-checked by Brittanica) "The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, was the expansion of a war between the two countries that had begun in February 2014, when disguised Russian troops covertly invaded and took control of the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea. In the following months, Russian troops and local proxies seized territory in Ukraine’s Donbas region, resulting in ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine that killed more than 14,000 people prior to Russia’s 2022 invasion."

---Why did Vladimir Putin invade Ukraine in 2022? (Brittanica)

    "Vladimir Putin's invasion followed years of tension between Russia and Ukraine as Ukraine moved toward closer ties with the West, which Putin viewed as a threat to Russia's influence. Between October and November 2021, he amassed troops and military equipment along Russia's border with Ukraine and made various demands that were rejected, including de facto veto power over NATO expansion. On February 21, 2022, Putin recognized the independence of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and ordered Russian troops into Ukrainian territory as "peacekeepers," and on February 24 he launched a full-scale invasion that he called a "special military operation."

    "Putin's stated reasons for the invasion included the false claim that Ukraine was committing genocide against Russian speakers in the Donbas. Putin's reasons were widely discredited internationally, and his invasion was instead seen as an attempt to reassert Russian influence over Ukraine and prevent its further integration with the European Union and NATO."

---The Trump Administration Trashes Europe and NATO (Dexter Filkins, The Lede, New Yorker, 2-20-25) Speeches delivered by J. D. Vance and Pete Hegseth were not just verbal lashings of America’s allies but a wholesale rejection of eighty years of U.S. foreign policy. Vance’s speech represented an astonishing rebuke of America’s closest and most enduring friends, most of them members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Indeed, it seemed to turn European reality on its head. Filkins writes about how NATO came to be.

ELON MUSK'S TAKEOVER

Associates of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have spread out across the federal government, alarming many career employees. DOGE broadens sweep of federal agencies, gains access to health payment systems.

• DOGE’s Only Public Ledger Is Riddled With Mistakes (Aatish Bhatia, Emily Badger, David A. Fahrenthold, Josh Katz, Margot Sanger-Katz, and Ethan Singer, NY Times, 2-21-25) The figures from Elon Musk’s team of outsiders represent billions in government cuts. They are also full of accounting errors, outdated data and other miscalculations.
• A comprehensive look at DOGE’s firings and layoffs so far (AP, 2-21-25) It is affecting more than just the national capital region, home to about 20% of the 2.4 million members of the civilian federal workforce, which does not include military personnel and postal workers. More than 80% of that workforce lives outside the Washington area. An overview of where the cuts are.
• Judge upholds ban on DOGE accessing sensitive Treasury information, for now (AP/WTOP, 2-21-25) Judge Vargas said DOGE’s efforts to modernize Treasury payment systems were not undercut by the delay, which she said was meant to ensure the security of sensitive personal data for millions of Americans.
• Musk’s cost-cutting team is laying off workers at the auto safety agency overseeing his car company (AP/WTOP, 2-22-25) In addition to investigations into Tesla’s partially automated vehicles, NHTSA has mandated that Tesla and other automakers using self-driving technology report crash data on vehicles, a requirement that Tesla has criticized and that watchdogs fear could be eliminated.

• Is DOGE ignoring the biggest chunk of missing federal money? (Kassidy Perkins, WTOP, 2-22-25)

Many of the programs in its crosshairs are related to foreign aid or “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives.    

    The IRS reported that Americans failed to pay an estimated $688 billion in taxes in 2023 alone. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates around $100 billion is lost every year to Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

     “Ironically, the Republicans in the last several congresses have refused to increase the number of investigators at the IRS.” Trump paused the hiring of new IRS agents on his first day in office.

     The Associated Press has reported that the IRS has plans to lay off 7,000 probationary workers this week. Elaine Kamarck, who led a Clinton-era initiative that trimmed $136 billion, is not opposed to eliminating fraud and waste. But she is skeptical of DOGE’s strategy. For rooting out wasteful spending within the agencies themselves, Kamarck said, “You have to cut government with a scalpel, not an ax.”

• The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover (Vittoria Elliott, Wired, 2-2-25) Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.
• Elon Musk Is Running the Twitter Playbook on the Federal Government

    (Zoe Schifferm Wired, 1-28-25) The US Office of Personnel Management is telling federal workers to get in line—or get out.
• Elon Musk Has Fired Twitter’s ‘Ethical AI’ Team (Will Knight, Business, Wired, 11-4-22) As part of a wave of layoffs, the new CEO disbanded a group working to make Twitter’s algorithms more transparent and fair.

AMERICA'S SOFT SPOTS
• Frankly, a hard look at America's soft spots A new podcast with former FBI Counterterrorism Director Frank Figluzzi, hosted by Chip Franklin on the Really American Media network.
• Trump says states should manage disasters and weighs shuttering FEMA. (Christopher Flavelle NY Times, 1-24-25
---Trump Visits L.A. and Tours Fire Damage After Suggesting FEMA Be Eliminated (NY Times, 1-24-25)
• Senate confirms Kash Patel as Trump’s FBI director (Clare Foran and Morgan Rimmer, CNN, 2-20-25) Concerns over his fitness to lead the FBI were reflected in the narrow margin of his confirmation vote (51 to 49). His three immediate predecessors—Christopher Wray, James Comey and Robert Mueller—all received at least 92 votes. As a Republican congressional aide and Trump national security staffer, Patel fought to declassify and release documents to try to undercut the FBI’s investigation into connections between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. During his confirmation hearing, Democrats focused in on Patel’s record of calling for punishments against the people he believes are part of the “deep state” that has attempted to undermine Trump. They raised concerns about what they called an “enemies list,” from Patel’s 2023 book, “Government Gangsters.”
• Trump Visits L.A. and Tours Fire Damage After Suggesting FEMA Be Eliminated (Chris Cameron, NY Times, 1-24-25) Mayor Karen Bass and President Trump are sparring over how quickly they can begin rebuilding in the aftermath of the Palisades fire disaster. Bass said that more cleanup is necessary in areas, as well as “getting rid of the hazardous waste.” Trump replied: “What’s hazardous waste? I mean, you’re going to have to define that.”

• Maryland Workers Impacted by Recent Federal Actions Resource website for Maryland public servants
• Really American Media
• Here's the Extent of the Fallout From Trump's HHS Purge (Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today, 2-19-25) "This is exactly the way not to do it," one expert says.

• Trump's negotiating style (Facebook Reels) An enlightening piece:
     "The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University.

     Distributive bargaining always has a winner and a loser. It happens when there is a fixed quantity of something and two sides are fighting over how it gets distributed.
     "In integrative bargaining the two sides don't have a complete conflict of interest, and it is possible to reach mutually beneficial agreements. Think of it, not a single pie to be divided by two hungry people, but as a baker and a caterer negotiating over how many pies will be baked at what prices, and the nature of their ongoing relationship after this one gig is over.
     "The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can't demand they not respond. One of the risks of distributive bargaining is bad will. So when you approach international negotiation, in a world as complex as ours, with integrated economies and multiple buyers and sellers, you simply must approach them through integrative bargaining.
     "Trump sees every negotiation as distributive...China saw [one particular negotiation] as integrative, and integrated Russia and its soybean purchase orders into a far more complex negotiation ecosystem."    

     "Trump is utterly convinced that his experience in a closely held real estate company has prepared him to run a nation, and therefore he rejects the advice of people who spent entire careers studying the nuances of international negotiations and diplomacy."

   "From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn't even bringing checkers to a chess match. He's bringing a quarter that he insists of flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether it's better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.”

• Covering Trump’s proposed tariffs? Here are 4 things you need to know (Clark Merrefield, Journalist's Resource, 1-28-25)

The Journalist's Resource and Econofact recently hosted a webinar featuring two trade economists and an NPR producer whose reporting teams have covered tariffs. Watch the recording and read key takeaways. Here are 4 things to know if you’re reporting on tariffs.

1. Know the history of U.S. tariffs.

2. Know who pays for tariffs in the short and long run.

3. Know the price and employment effects of tariffs.

4. Know that there are stories to be told about how businesses ‘contort themselves’ to get around tariffs.
• Rising Import Tariffs, Falling Exports: When Modern Supply Chains Meet Old-Style Protectionism (Kyle Handley, Fariha Kamal,and Ryan Monarch, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2025). "We examine the impacts of the 2018–2019 US import tariff increases on US exports through the lens of supply chain linkages. Using 2016 confidential firm-trade linked data, we identify exporters who were importing products that eventually faced tariff increases to construct product-level exposure to import tariffs. We find that the most exposed products had lower exports in 2018–2019, with the largest effects in 2019. The decline in exports in 2019 is equivalent to an ad valorem tariff on US exports of 2 percent to 4 percent."
• Trump Administration Live Updates: No Last-Minute Deal for Canada and Mexico to Avoid Tariffs, Trump Says (NY Times, 3-3-25) Sweeping 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico will start tomorrow, President Trump said in White House remarks. Products from China will face an additional 10 percent tariff.
---What’s Behind Trump’s Love-Hate Relationship With Canada (Alan Rappeport and Ian Austen, NY Times, 3-3-25) Canada is one of the United States’ largest trading partners, but President Trump wants to either take it or leave it. As Mr. Trump prepares to push ahead with a new round of tariffs, he has expressed a special brand of loathing for Canada. There is the theory that President Trump is still bitter about his Canadian hotel ventures that went bust. And then there is the transactional view, that Mr. Trump sees the acquisition of Canada as the 51st state as the ultimate real estate deal that would seal his presidential legacy. Intrigue abounds in Canada about why Mr. Trump has repeatedly belittled a neighbor and threatened to destabilize its economy with tariffs, a process that has brought relations between the two countries to a low point not seen in decades.

   Additional blog posts with roundups of Trump and Musk activities:
---Trump, January 6, opinions vs. facts, indictment, trials, political positions, and second presidency (Writers and Editors blog, 10-12-24)
---Highlights of Trump's first term (blog post highlighting points in NY Times opinion piece, 7-19-24) 4)
---Trump Stinks. Let me count the ways. (blog post, 4-5-22)

Listen to Amy Collins on How to Get Your Books Into Bookstores and Libraries, a brillian pep talk on Tom Corson-Knowles Publishing Profits Podcast (a while ago, but the advice still seems sound). Amy is knowledgeable, practical, and a really good, speaker. Here's one point she makes, from 2015 data: Over 60% of Americans have a library card; over 40% of them have been in a library in the last month. Only 5% of them have been in a bookstore in the last month.

   A lot of books will license an e-book, for a limited time. And if the e-book is popular, when the license is up, they'll re-up.

• The Humble Neighborhood Library: Why It Should Be Part of Your Book-Enthusiasm-Generating Plan (Kelly Turner on Jane Friedman's blog, 2-13-25) Since most readers don't have an independent bookstore in their neighborhood, public libraries can be an ideal spot for author events.

    Comments are interesting, including this by Kelly herself: From the ‘author’ side, I found it helpful (and honestly a little jarring) to talk to other readers at the event. I realized I’ve become quite clinical in the way I talk about books: ‘genre – pov – tense – setting – kind of story.’ The readers I spoke with talked about books very differently, which reminded me that if I want to have and engage with readers, I shouldn’t drown them with all this ‘backend’ vocabulary.

    "According to the Panorama Project's 2019 survey of nearly 200 libraries in 30 states, about half of responding libraries produced ten or more events (including book clubs, speaker series, and author events) each year. Libraries hosting fewer than 10 events per year were more likely to host community book clubs and speaker series than author events. I can't claim these data are representative of the (over 17,000) public libraries in the US, but given the American Association of Publishers reports nearly $30 billion in US book sales in 2023, there's capacity for more library events connecting authors and readers."

There are four times as many libraries as there are bookstores in the U.S.--in Canada, six times as many. There are over 2400 independent bookstores in the U.S., but 12,000 public libraries (9500 physical permanent public library branches). A lot is going on in libraries and their budgets are going up. The average library system budget is about $1.8 million, some of which goes to staffing, magazines, and other materials. They buy hardcover and paperback and license ebooks and in many cases audiobooks (sometimes from self-published and independent authors). The materials budget is roughly distributed thus:
• Paperbacks: 41%
• Audiobooks: 20%
• eBooks: 19%
• Hardcover books: 9%.
If they can’t afford your book they’ll find a competitive book that’s less expensive. Having your books in the library increases sales of your books outside libraries.

How to sell books to libraries
To sell books to libraries, you have to be listed in the two main library databases and with at least one main wholesaler.

Libraries won’t order books until they have money in their budget and they will pay you through the wholesaler they purchase books from (the wholesaler will pay the publisher).
Authors: Traditional publishers will typically register your books with library databases. 

Indie publishers, it's important to register yours in library databases, also. 

The two easiest ways/venues to register your books in library databases:
1) Register your book and ISBN with Books in Print (RR Bowker, My Identifiers), by registering your ISBN: www.myidentifiers.com and get a BARCODE

2) Register with OCLC, which funds and runs WorldCat Registry (OCLC Developer Network)
It's pretty easy, or you can hire a company to create a PCIP (publisher cataloging in publication) block for you. The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) is an American nonprofit cooperative organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large--to make information more accessible and useful.

What are cataloging, CIP, and PCIP?:Cataloging is descriptive information about a resource, using a set vocabulary, formatted according to national standards and created by a trained cataloger. When an item has CIP or PCIP, a cataloging block is usually found on the back of the title page.

---What the heck are CIPs and PCIPs, ISBNs and ISSNs, ISNIs, LCCNs and PCNs, BISAC, WorldCat, and barcodes

(Also EAN, ASIN [Amazon], GTIN, LC-CIP, MARC, UPC) and does every product need one or need listing?  (Writers and Editors website)

PRODUCT IDENTIFIERS:
---Product identifiers, General
---ISBN, ISSN, and barcodes for books
---CIP, LC-CIP, AND P-CIP (cataloging in publication)
---LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number and PCN) (Preassigned Control Number)
---BISAC Subject Headings
---ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier)
---WORLDCAT (a global catalog of library materials--books, music, video, articles and more)

More tips on the Writers and Editors website:
• Selling your book to libraries, bookstores, schools
• How and where to get reviews that lead to library purchases
• Library sites and portals

READ THIS as an antidote to Trumpism:

Lori Gallagher Witt's essay: on What a liberal believes and thinks

     January 7, 2018 Copyright Lori Gallagher Witt

     (Then listen to Robert Reich's expansion on what an oligarchy is (scroll to bottom)

"But then the 2016 election happened, and staying quiet wasn't an option anymore. Since then, I've received no shortage of emails and comments from people who were shocked, horrified, disappointed, disgusted, or otherwise displeased to realize I am *wrinkles nose* a liberal. Yep. I'm one of those bleeding heart commies who hates anyone who's white, straight, or conservative, and who wants the government to dictate everything you do while taking your money and giving it to people who don't work.

Or am I?

Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: Not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines.

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. Period.

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that's interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.

3. I believe education should be affordable and accessible to everyone. It doesn't necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I'm mystified as to why it can't work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. I'm self-employed, so I already pay a shitload of taxes. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, that means increasing my already eye-watering tax bill. I'm fine with paying my share as long as it's actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is - and should be - illegal) All I ask is that Christians recognize *my* right to live according to *my* beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I'm not "offended by Christianity" -- I'm offended that you're trying to force me to live by your religion's rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia on you? That's how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don't force it on me or mine.

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe we should have the *same* rights as you.

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally.). I'm not opposed to deporting people who are here illegally, but I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc).

10. I believe we should take in refugees, or at the very least not turn them away without due consideration. Turning thousands of people away because a terrorist might slip through is inhumane, especially when we consider what has happened historically to refugees who were turned away (see: MS St. Louis). If we're so opposed to taking in refugees, maybe we should consider not causing them to become refugees in the first place. Because we're fooling ourselves if we think that somewhere in the chain of events leading to these people becoming refugees, there isn't a line describing something the US did.

11. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

12. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I'm butthurt over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

13. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person? Your refusal to adjust your vocabulary in the name of not being an asshole kind of makes YOU the snowflake.

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.
I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.

So, I'm a liberal.

(c) 2018 Lori Gallagher Witt. Feel free to share, but please give Lori Gallagher Witt credit, and if you add or change anything, please note accordingly. [Nothing changed here.]

Robert Reich's response 

summarizing the essence of Trump's attempt to create an oligarchy:

    Replacing civil servants with loyalists.

    Upending the lives of millions who rely on federal programs.

    Grotesquely blaming "DEI" for disaster.

Trump wants to consolidate power through divide-and-conquer tactics.

We must stand together and fight back."

Source: his powerful discussion on 

  See earlier (or listen to) A Warning from 1994 of a Two-Tiered Society (Robert Reich) "In 1994, I took a lot of heat for this speech warning that the American middle class was in danger. That was 29 years ago this week. Watch and tell me if I was wrong."

Republicans:This is going to come back and bite you.

Democrats: Fight back!

• Elon Musk Has Broken the Constitutional Order (Matt Ford, New Republic, 2-5-25) The tech oligarch has unleashed his slow-rolling coup d’état across the federal government, and it’s not clear anything can prevent a total takeover.
   "There is no precedent in American history for anything like this. Musk is a private citizen who has not been elected to anything. He is not a federal employee; he has not been confirmed by the Senate to any office or post. (DOGE itself is technically a hollowed-out version of the former U.S. Digital Service, a White House office, instead of the outside consulting group that was originally pitched.) He is not abiding by any of the ethical or legal restrictions to which public officials are subject. Spending a quarter-billion dollars on Trump’s reelection efforts has effectively allowed the world’s richest man to buy the federal government itself."

      "In any other situation, this would be called state capture, and people around the world would be condemning it," says Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid, who writes in a new blog post that "Elon Musk is staging a coup."

    What you can do to stop Musk and Trump?  Scroll to bottom for tips.

• Bernie Sanders Dismantles Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos Oligarchy (YouTube speech to U.S. Senate, 2-5-25, 20 minutes, with transcript) During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) accused President Trump and the billionaire 'oligarchs' such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, of leading the United States to ‘authoritarianism’.

• All the executive orders Trump has signed after 1 week in office (NPR Staff, 1-28-25) A chart of all the orders, explained.
• Trump’s Executive Orders: Reversing Biden’s Policies and Attacking the ‘Deep State’ (Zolan Kanno-YoungsMichael D. Shear and Noah Weiland, NY Times, 1-20-25) The president moved swiftly in his first hours in office, signing a slew of executive orders in front of a roaring crowd and then in the Oval Office.

• Overview of President Trump’s Executive Actions on Global Health (Jennifer Kates, Josh Michaud, Kellie Moss, and Lindsey Dawson, Global Health Policy fact sheet, KFF, 2-5-25)

• Is Elon Musk Staging a Coup? Unelected Billionaire Seizes Control at Treasury Dept. & Other Agencies (12-minute video, Democracy Now, 2-3-25) "Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and unelected adviser to President Donald Trump, is asserting control over much of the federal bureaucracy and sensitive government computer systems despite lacking clear authority. The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department was pushed out after refusing to hand Musk's team the keys to the government's entire payment system and the $6 trillion in payments the system processes annually, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and Medicare benefits. Musk and his team have also seized control at the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, key institutions that function as the central nervous system of the U.S. government."

• Steve Bannon's 'Flood the Zone' Strategy Explained Amid Trump Policy Blitz (Peter Aitkin, Newsweek/MSN, 2-6-25)

    "The 'flood the zone' strategy seemingly being used by the Trump administration, which has resulted in a relentless onslaught of new directives and policy announcements, is drawing renewed scrutiny during the beginning of his second term. The "flood the zone" strategy seemingly being used by the Trump administration, which has resulted in a relentless onslaught of new directives and policy announcements, is drawing renewed scrutiny during the beginning of his second term.
   "The term was reportedly coined by former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in 2018 when he said the best way to deal with media was to "flood the zone."
    "The strategy from Bannon was to continually attempt to overwhelm opposition from Democrats as well as the media through a flurry of moves that would be difficult to respond to all at once.
   "Trump appears to have embraced the strategy in his second term, issuing a seemingly relentless number of policy announcements and signing a large number of executive orders in the first weeks of his second administration.
   Said Steve Bannon: "The media can only—because they're dumb and they're lazy—they can only focus on one thing at a time."
   "And all we have to do is flood the zone," Bannon said. "Every day we hit them with three things, they'll bite on one, and we'll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never—will never be able to recover. But we've got to start with muzzle velocity. So it's got to start, and it's got to hammer," he continued before being cut off.

• Fight Against Elon Musk’s Government Takeover (Annabelle Timsit and Matt Viser, WashPost, 2-4-25) The SGE [special government employee] designation, which has come under scrutiny under Democrats as well, exempts short-term federal employees from certain disclosure rules.

• Elon Musk is a ‘special government employee.’ What does that mean

(Washington Post, 2-4-25)

     A special government employee is “anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period,” with or without compensation, according to the Justice Department. It is not clear how long Musk’s mission as head of the Department of Government Efficiency is expected to last.
    The classification means Musk is not a volunteer but is considered less than a full-time employee. It also means he is exempt from some of the rules — including around financial disclosures and conflicts of interest — that apply to full-time government employees.

• Senate Democrats raise concerns about Musk team access to Treasury payment systems (Federal News Network)

• Trump says he’s firing Kennedy Center board of trustees members and naming himself chairman(Will Weissertap, AP News, 2-8-25) He also indicated that he would be dictating programming at one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, specifically declaring that he would end events featuring performers in drag. Trump’s announcement Friday came as the Republican president has bulldozed his way across official Washington during the first weeks of his second term, trying to shutter federal agencies, freeze spending and ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the government.

• NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately (Dan Diamond, Carolyn Y. Johnson and Lena H. Sun, Washington Post, 2-8-25) Trump allies hailed NIH’s move. The U.S. DOGE Service, the office led by billionaire Elon Musk that has focused on slashing government spending, said NIH’s new policy would save billions of dollars in “excessive grant administrative costs” and praised the “amazing job by NIH team” in a post on social media.

    NIH’s policy shift centers on how it awards grants to support scientific research on cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It also provides overhead funds to cover the costs of facilities, administration and other approved costs. Researchers say it would hurt facilities that work on medical issues such as cancer research and heart disease. Elon Musk contends the old policy was “a ripoff.”
---A sense of foreboding hangs over the National Institutes of Health (Rob Stein, Shots/Health, NPR, 2-5-25) "Most scientists are very worried," agrees Bruce Alberts, a professor emeritus of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, who served as the president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1993 to 2005. Kennedy and Bhattacharya "both have a record of ignoring the best science and making statements and opinions that are not based on the best science and more are based on emotion and the misreading of science.

• Trump has tapped an unprecedented 13 billionaires for his administration. Here's who they are (Peter Charalambous, Laura Romero, and Soo Rin Kim, ABC News, 12-17-24) The nominees make up the richest presidential administration in modern history (a cabinet of cronies--read about them!). How likely are they to focus on supporting the welfare and rights of the average (much less the poor) citizen as well as they focus on the well-to-do? Peak achievement: Waiters won't have to pay taxes on their tips.

• Trump’s Pardons and Purges Revive Old Question: Who Counts as a Terrorist? (Hannah Allam, ProPublica, 2-10-25) The president’s sweeping clemency for Capitol rioters and his administration’s ongoing removal of career national security specialists foretell a permissive new climate for extremist movements, say current and former officials and researchers. For the Justice Department, Stewart Rhodes' seditious conspiracy conviction was bigger than crushing the Oath Keepers — it was a hard-won victory in the government’s efforts to reorient a creaky bureaucracy toward a rapidly evolving homegrown threat. (Rhodes was founder of the far-right Oath Keepers movement.)

     On his first day in office, Trump erased that work by granting clemency to more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, declaring an end to “a grave national injustice.” Chat forums filled with would-be MAGA vigilantes who fantasize about rounding up Democratic politicians or acting as bounty hunters to corral undocumented migrants. Researchers noted one Proud Boys chat group where users had posted the LinkedIn pages of corrections officers who purportedly oversaw Jan. 6 detainees.

• What you can do, Revised and expanded  (Robert Reich, 2-6-25)

Some of the headlines (each followed by instructions):

1. Protect vulnerable members of your communities who are undocumented or whose parents are undocumented.

2. Protect LGBTQ+ members of your community.

3. Help protect public officials whom Trump and his administration are targeting for vengeance.

5. Urge your Democratic senators to continuously demand quorum calls and object to unanimous consent, to deny Senate Republicans the ability to enact Trump initiatives.

6. Urge Democratic House members to vote against all Republican initiatives.

11. To the extent you are able, fund groups that are litigating against Trump. Much of the action over the next months and years will be in the federal courts.

    The groups initiating legislation that I know and trust include the American Civil Liberties Union, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, Public Citizen, Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Defense Fund, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Common Cause.

13. Urge friends, relatives, and acquaintances to avoid Trump propaganda outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, X, and, increasingly, Facebook and Instagram.

• Flooding Trump and Musk’s zone (Robert Reich, 2-9-25) How to deal with their tyranny. Do read this!

• Stop Elon Musk's Coup (Video)

• Don’t Believe Him (The Ezra Klein Show, 2-2-25) Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different from what he wants you to see. In Trump’s first term, we were told: Don’t normalize him. In his second, the task is different: Don’t believe him....

   "Perhaps this Supreme Court, stocked with his appointees, gives him powers no peacetime president has ever possessed. Perhaps all of this becomes legal now that he has asserted its legality. It is not impossible to imagine that bet paying off.

    "But Trump’s odds are bad....Bravado aside, Trump’s political capital is thin. Both in his first and second terms, he has entered office with approval ratings below that of any president in the modern era. Gallup has Trump’s approval rating at 47 percent — about 10 points beneath Joe Biden’s in January 2021....

    "That is the tension at the heart of Trump’s whole strategy: Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. He is trying to substitute perception for reality. He is hoping that perception then becomes reality. That can only happen if we believe him.
    "The Trump administration is waging an immediate war on the bureaucracy, trying to replace the “deep state” it believes hampered it in the first term. A big part of this project seems to have been outsourced to Elon Musk, who is bringing the tactics he used at Twitter to the federal government. He has longtime aides at the Office of Personnel Management, and the email sent to nearly all federal employees even reused the subject line of the email he sent to Twitter employees: “Fork in the Road.” Musk wants you to know it was him."

    "I suspect Musk thinks of the federal work force as a huge mass of woke ideologues. But most federal workers have very little to do with politics. About 16 percent of the federal work force is in health care. These are, for instance, nurses and doctors who work for the Veterans Affairs department. How many of them does Musk want to lose? What plans does the V.A. have for attracting and training their replacements? How quickly can he do it?"

• Fraud and Musk (Robert Reich, 2-11-25)"The Trump-Musk regime is accusing federal civil servants of fraud, based on no evidence, while at the same time allowing corporations to pay off foreign officials, dropping bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams, pardoning a former governor of Illinois who tried to sell his Senate seat, and stopping investigations into foreign influence-peddling in the United States."  

     "Today, Musk held forth in the Oval Office, claiming that drastic reductions in the federal workforce were justified because it was rife with fraud.

   "I’ve spent more than a dozen years in the federal government, and I can tell you that the vast majority of civil servants I’ve had the honor of working with are dedicated and hard-working. They are delivering critical services to Americans and protecting them from corporate malfeasance....
    "Musk has the integrity of a slug. Since Trump was elected president, Musk’s fortune has increased $270 billion. If you think that’s an accident, you haven’t been paying attention.When Trump was sworn into office, Musk’s six corporations were under more than 32 continuing investigations conducted by at least 11 federal agencies, according to a review by The New York Times. Most of these cases are now closed or likely to be closed soon, and the agencies that initiated them are being defanged by Musk and Trump."

See also an earlier post: Warning: Severe Trouble Ahead in Trump 2.0

(Updated 2-10-25 [and regularly] and expanded from an earlier version)

Alarming news from the first weeks of the second Trump administration:

• This is what dictatorship looks like (Robert Reich, 2-5-25)

We are now in a coup. Trump's goons are taking over the federal government without congressional authority and with  very little public awareness.

   They're using two techniques.

---The first is to physically take over an agency or department. 

---The second technique being used by Musk and his tech goons is to gain access to the Treasury Department's payments system, responsible for nearly all payments made by the U.S. government, and alter it.

Says one outside observer: "It's a very strange coup where no one can believe you are doing it so you just waltz in and take what you want."
---DOGE broadens sweep of federal agencies, gains access to health payment systems (Dan Diamond, Lauren Kaori Gurley, Lena H. Sun, Hannah Knowles and Emily Davies, WashPost, 2-8-25) Associates of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] have spread out across the federal government in recent days, alarming many career employees.

 
• What to do about a lawless president? (Robert Reich, 2-10-25)  The Trump regime is refusing to be bound by the federal courts. Where will this end? The end of law? He is the most lawless president in American history.
     "He’s allowed Musk’s rats unfettered access to the Treasury’s payments system. Banned birthright citizenship. Refused to spend money appropriated by Congress. Closed U.S. AID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, independent agencies, without Congress’s approval. Substituted political loyalists for civil servants. Unleashed the military on civilians. And on it goes."

• Why Washington is getting nervous about a shutdown (Jennifer Scholtes, Politico, 2-5-25) President Donald Trump's truculent first days in office have created an especially unfavorable climate on Capitol Hill for landing any cross-party accord, whether that’s a “grand funding deal” ahead of the government shutdown deadline or an agreement to lift the debt limit to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on more than $36 trillion in loans in the coming months. Washington is growing increasingly worried about the potential for a government shutdown — and what devastation it could bring.Trump infamously presided over the longest government shutdown in U.S. history (35 days!) in 2018–2019.

• Trump and Musk Have All of Washington on Edge—Just Like They Wanted (The DC Brief, Time's politics newsletter, 2-3-25) The candor on the tarmac Sunday night at Joint Base Andrews, under the wing of the presidential aircraft, came without any flinch of self doubt. “This is retaliatory,” President Donald Trump told reporters, essentially summing up his first two weeks in office in the most inelegant but honest bit of sloganeering. He was talking about tariffs against U.S. neighbors but he just as plausibly was describing his posture toward all corners of his new empire.
• Week 1 (Weekly Sift, 1-27-25) "Trump is president now, and that fact has consequences. But he’s not all-powerful. We need to educate ourselves about how to oppose him most effectively."

TREASURY'S PAYMENTS SYSTEM
• Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System

    (Andrew Duehren, Maggie Haberman,Theodore Schleifer, and Alan Rappeport, NY Times, 2-1-25)
 "Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to five people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending. [No, Musk was not elected to office.]
    "The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk’s lieutenants into the department’s payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit.

TARIFFS
• Trump hits Canada, Mexico and China with steep new tariffs; Canada retaliates (Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 2-1-25) The White House said today that Trump signed executive orders imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods and a 25% tariff on Mexican and most Canadian goods.
• Trump's negotiating style (Facebook reels, read column on the right) The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation of the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University. "The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can't demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked. Further, negotiations aren't binary. China's choices aren't (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don't buy soybeans. They can also (c) buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation."
---Canada and Mexico Move to Retaliate on Trump Tariff Orders (New York Times, 2-1-25)
---Trump Tariffs Could Hurt Oil Companies and Increase Gas Prices (Rebecca F. Elliott, NY Times, 1-31-25) Some oil refineries will probably struggle to replace imported crude oil if President Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico.

---Trump tariff news (Matina Stevis-Gridneff, New York Times, live)
     Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will retaliate by placing 25 percent tariffs on $106 billion worth of American products. 
    Trudeau calls on Canadians to choose Canadian goods, to forgo Florida orange juice, Kentucky bourbon, or holidays in the United States.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country is readying a "forceful and immediate response" if Trump moves forward with tariffs.

• What Are Tariffs and Why Is Trump In Favor of Them? ( Rebecca Schneid, Time Magazine, 2-2-25) Trump has said that he planned to impose tariffs on imported goods to boost American manufacturing and end, what he says, are unfair trade practices. Trump has also stated that the tariffs are intended to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs into the United States. Discussing the tariffs in a series of posts on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump stated that the decision was made to “protect” Americans “because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl.” (Tariffs are unlikely to stop the flow of fentanyl, but they will also raise the cost of avocados imported from Mexico, for example. I'm puzzled about tariffs and undocumented immigrants.)

AGGRESSIVE NATIONALISM (Panama, Greenland, and Canada)
• The Historical Roots of Donald Trump’s Aggressive Nationalism (Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 1-28-25) What the President’s confrontations with Panama, Greenland, Canada, and Colombia suggest about his expansionist vision.
• The Return of American Exuberance (Adam Rowe via Compact, 1-20-25) Trump's foreign policy is not as unprecedented as it seems. Frum captures both its ideals and illusions well, particularly in his warning that Trump threatens to turn America “from protector nation to predator nation.”

EDUCATION
• Here Are Trump’s First-Week Actions That Could Affect Schools (Brooke Schultz, Education Week, 1-24-25)
None of these orders deals with schools exclusively, but they signal how the Trump administration will approach protections for LGBTQ+ students that the Biden administration tried to institute and immigration enforcement on and around school campuses. Some of Trump’s orders that more generally took aim at the workings of the federal government could have an effect on operations at the U.S. Department of Education.
---Overturning years of precedent, immigration officials can now make arrests at schools. 
---Trump considering action to dismantle Education Department, sources say (CBS News, 2-3-25)
---Trump order prioritizing education choice likely to affect Ohio less than other states (Katie Millard, Central Ohio News, 2-4-25) Trump’s order directs the Secretary of Education to prioritize school choice programs in its grant programs and requires the Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance for states to use grants for educational choice. Educational choice refers to parents being able to choose where to send their children using tax-funded scholarships or vouchers to attend private or charter schools.
---A school safety board, assembled to advise federal agencies on best practices to protect students, was disbanded
---In some of his sweeping first-day actions, the president imposed a temporary hiring freeze at most federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education.
• Trump Admin. Axes Newly Created School Safety Board (Evie Blad, Education Week, 1-25) The Trump administration has disbanded a school safety board that was recently assembled to advise federal agencies on best practices to protect students. The panel was enshrined in legislation, leaving its fate unclear.

IMMIGRATION
• Debunking the Myth of Immigrants and Crime (American Immigration Council, 10-17-24) The scapegoating of ethnic and religious minorities is well-tread historical ground in the United States, and immigrants have always made for an easy target. "However, a robust body of research shows that welcoming immigrants into American communities not only does not increase crime, but can actually strengthen public safety. In fact, immigrants—including undocumented immigrants—are less likely to commit crimes than the U.S.-born. This is true at the national, state, county, and neighborhood levels, and for both violent and non-violent crime."
• Immigrant Communities in Hiding: ‘People Think ICE Is Everywhere’ (Miriam JordanHamed Aleaziz and Heather Knight, NY Times, 1-30-25) Schools, churches and shops are feeling the chilling effect of the fear of deportation. One minister said fewer congregants were showing up for services. The owner of Park Plaza Barber Shop in Los Angeles said fears of immigration enforcement had led many customers to stay away.

• How Disaster Provides Cover for Authorities to Target Immigrants (V.N. Trinh, Time, Made by History, 1-27-25) Deporting people is challenging and requires time and resources. During Trump’s first term, deportations peaked in the 2019 budget year, when the federal authorities removed about 347,000 people. Efforts to target immigrants amid the 1992 L.A. Uprising point to what deportations might look like under Trump 2.0.

     In the Los Angeles Uprising, the LAPD, INS, and other government agencies coordinated to surveil, seize, interrogate, and deport undocumented immigrants. They carried out these efforts indiscriminately, categorizing everyday people going about their daily lives as “riot aliens.” As a result, more than a thousand Los Angeles residents were expelled from their communities.

     Just over a year into Donald Trump's first term as President, immigration agents raided a meat processing plant in Bean Station, Tennessee, arresting 104 workers. It was the largest worksite raid in a decade. Two months later, 114 were arrested at a large-scale nursery in Sandusky, Ohio. The next year, immigration agents raided poultry plants in six towns in central Mississippi, arresting 680 workers in one day.
     Eric Ruark predicts that reviving of workplace raids will prompt a collision within the Republican Party, as pro-business Republicans are likely to see the raids as undermining the economy.
• What we know about unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. (Jeffrey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad, Pew Research Center, 7-22-24) The facts. Always better than campaign slogans.
    "The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States grew to 11.0 million in 2022, according to new Pew Research Center estimates based on the 2022 American Community Survey, the most recent year available. The increase from 10.5 million in 2021 reversed a long-term downward trend from 2007 to 2019. This is the first sustained increase in the unauthorized immigrant population since the period from 2005 to 2007."

    "Immigrants made up 14.3% of the nation’s population in 2022. That share was slightly higher than in the previous five years but below the record high of 14.8% in 1890. "As of 2022, unauthorized immigrants represented 3.3% of the total U.S. population and 23% of the foreign-born population. These shares were lower than the peak values in 2007 but slightly higher than in 2019.

     "Meanwhile, the lawful immigrant population grew steadily from 24.1 million in 2000 to 36.9 million in 2022. The growth was driven by a rapid increase in the number of naturalized citizens, from 10.7 million to 23.4 million. The number of lawful permanent residents dropped slightly, from 11.9 million to 11.5 million. As a result, in 2022, 49% of all immigrants in the country were naturalized U.S. citizens."

SHUTTERING USAID
“CLOSE IT DOWN,” Trump said on social media of USAID before the judge’s ruling.
• Almost all USAID workers will be pulled off the job worldwide, Trump administration says (Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee, Associated Press, 2-5-25)
• Government showdown: Trump administration clashes with Democrats over move to shutter USAID Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that he is now the acting director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration is trying to shut down as an independent agency.

• In Breaking USAID, the Trump Administration May Have Broken the Law (Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, ProPublica, 2-9-25) The Trump administration may have broken multiple laws in crippling USAID, according to experts. While USAID was first created by President John F. Kennedy in a 1961 executive order, Congress passed a law in 1998 to make it an “independent establishment” like others in the cabinet. Multiple administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, built USAID into an institution that has helped save millions of lives around the world, promoted U.S. interests in remote corners of the globe and employed thousands of Americans.
Now Trump and Musk have nearly destroyed it in three weeks.

    “It’s very hard not to see what’s going on as a constitutional crisis,” said Peter Shane, a law professor and one of the country’s leading scholars on the Constitution. “It’s very scary and tragic.” Monday will be crucial to see if the Trump administration follows a court order blocking their efforts.

• "Make no mistake: The takeover and dismantling of USAID is a test case for whether Musk and the Trump regime can destroy a part of government without legal or political resistance. So far, the answer seems to be yes."~Robert Reich in his blog post on Dictatorship.

PUBLIC HEALTH
• The man no rational person would put in charge of the public’s health (Robert Reich, 1-28-25) "Robert Kennedy Jr. is not just a nutcase. He’s also a designated hitter in the oligarchy’s efforts to get government out of public health — and force Americans to rely instead on private for-profit corporations for their health insurance, hospitalization, vaccines, and pharmaceuticals. These corporations continue to merge into giant for-profit monopolies and oligopolies. If confirmed, Kennedy Jr. would also oversee Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. Taken together, these three programs provide health insurance to more than half the American population.
      "Kennedy Jr. has assured senators that he doesn’t want to take vaccines away from Americans but his history of anti-vaccine advocacy has made those promises difficult to believe. He has repeated over 100 times false claims linking vaccines to autism — a theory debunked by decades of scientific research. He was a leading proponent of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, erroneously suggesting the vaccine has killed more people than it has saved. RFK Jr.’s misinformation about vaccines continues to endanger public health. Given his anti-vax advocacy, there is no reason to trust his judgment on the development of vaccines against bird flu."

• Trump's Gag Order Halts CDC Publication (Rachael Robertson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today, 1-23-25) "This is a concerning precedent that public health messages won't be left to public health professionals and experts, and instead will be potentially controlled by politicians," Sonja Rasmussen, MD, a former editor of MMWR who worked at the CDC for 20 years, told MedPage Today.
     "The bottom line is every day the publication is delayed, doctors, nurses, hospitals, local health departments, and first responders are behind the information curve and less prepared to protect the health of all Americans," Frieden said in a statement shared with MedPage Today.

     The federal public health gag order that went into place on January 21 implied that government websites that publish public health data would not be updated -- things like COVID, influenza, RSV, and norovirus surveillance. Bird flu trackers were also under threat, which was pretty bad timing considering New York just joined the states with cases in poultry.

     NIH Research Starts Grinding to a Halt: Real Impact
The gag order on communications and meetings to adjudicate research proposals at the NIH also includes purchasing research supplies, CNN reported.
• I’m a health researcher. NIH’s pause on research grants could have a devastating cost. (MSNBC) This is a potentially devastating event — not just for the scientific community, but for all Americans. If this pause is not reversed soon, the fallout for scientific research in the U.S. may be felt for years to come.

• Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid (Stephanie Nolen, NY Times, 2-1-25) Lifesaving treatment and prevention programs for tuberculosis, malaria, H.I.V. and other diseases cannot access funds to continue work. Lifesaving health initiatives and medical research projects have shut down around the world in response to the Trump administration’s 90-day pause on foreign aid and stop-work orders.

   Does the Halt in Foreign Aid Hurt People Yet? Yes: Real Impact. Not next year. Not next month. Not next week. Now.

• Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring (Meredith Wadman, Jocelyn Kaiser, STAT News, 1-22-25) Researchers at the National Institutes of Health facing “a lot of uncertainty, fear, and panic.”

    Researchers who have clinical trial participants staying at the NIH's on-campus hospital, the Clinical Trial Center, said last week they weren't able to order test tubes to draw blood as well as other key study components. One researcher who was affected said his study would run out of key supplies by this week. If that happened, the research results would be compromised, and he would have to recruit new patients, he said.

• The Mayhem Trump's First Week Did and Did Not Cause in Public Health (Jeremy Faust, MedPage Today, Opinion, 1-27-25) The theory versus reality of what's really happened to date.

TRUMP'S WAR ON Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
• Researchers reel as Trump administration moves quickly to cut funding and end DEI health programs (Angus Chen, Usha Lee McFarling, and Jonathan Wosen, STAT News, 1-20-25)  ‘The work is hard enough to do as it is,’ said one advocate who urged scientists to push back,.

---What’s the Point of Trump’s War on D.E.I.? (Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 1-31-25) To distract from his larger plan to gut the federal government, the President has taken a relatively powerless program and turned it into an excuse for everything that goes wrong in the country. 
---Trump’s DEI purge targets federal workers who did not work in DEI (Laura Meckler, Hannah Natanson, Julian Mark, MSN/Washington Post, 2-1-25) At least 50 employees at the Education Department have been put on leave in recent days after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to eliminate all positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion. But almost none of them worked in jobs directly related to DEI, according to union officials and interviews with affected workers.

ANTI-ABORTION STANCE DESPITE TRUMP SAYING IT'S A STATE ISSUE
• Trump re-enacts policy banning aid to groups abroad that discuss or provide abortions (Rachel Carlson, Fatma Tanis, Goats and Soda, NPR, 1-24-25) On Friday, he reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which cuts off U.S. aid to any group operating in another country that provides abortion services, counsels people about abortion or advocates for abortion rights.

• Trump Declares Open Season on Abortion Clinics (Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, 1-25) Trump’s pardons and the commutations for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists might be the single scariest thing that happened in a really scary week. And now it has an add-on, which is a series of pardons for people who protested—and did a lot more than protest—at abortion facilities (against abortions). It seems like just another song in a different key: Anybody who decided to take the law into their own hands is just fine as long as they were doing it for something that Donald Trump likes.

PLAIN OLD CORRUPTION AND INFLUENCE PEDDLING
• Trump’s crypto-ligarchy (Robert Reich, 1-27-25) "It will blow up in his face — and possibly take the financial system with it. Days before taking the oath of office, Trump announced on his social media platform the creation of the $TRUMP coin, featuring Trump’s image from the July assassination attempt and said: “Join the Trump Community. This is History in the Making!”
     Despite no details about the coin’s value, use, or risks, Trump supporters, gamblers, and those wishing to suck up to Trump bought it — sending the coin’s price into the stratosphere. On paper, the Trump family is now several billion dollars richer.

PROJECT 25

President Trump wants a massive tax cut and immigration crackdown bill. Now Republicans must decide what to cut to help pay for it.

• Project 25 "Building for conservative victory through policy, personnel, and training. Get the facts."

Top Republicans are passing around a 50-page list of ideas on how to cover the cost of a tax cut and immigration crackdown bill, including cuts to Medicaid and a 10 percent tariff on all imports. The list also includes tax cut proposals, such as lowering the corporate tax rate and eliminating income taxes on tips.

Here are a few options under consideration (a sample from a 50-page document)

   Do look at Wikipedia's page on Project 25, the Republican plan that Trump is clearly trying to push through.

   And here: https://www.project2025.org/

WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE
• House G.O.P. Floats Medicaid Cuts and More to Finance Trump’s Huge Agenda

(Catie Edmondson and Andrew Duehren, NY Times, 1-23-25)

---Read: Draft Options for G.O.P. Cost Cuts for Tax Bill (Ways and Means Committee)

Download the original document:

https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/28cb85c5ed1f6c52/44e83eb4-full.pdf

https://www.project2025.org/

Here are a few items from the 50-page list of Republican proposals:

Limit Federal Health Program Eligibility Based on Citizenship Status

Up to $35 billion 10-year savings

"Currently, many non-citizens who entered the country illegally are eligible for federal health care programs including advance premium tax credits and Medicaid. This policy would remove specified categories of non-citizens from eligibility for federal health care programs."

Eliminate Medicare Coverage of Bad Debt

Up to $42 billion 10-year savings

"Medicare currently reimburses hospitals at 65 percent of bad debt (uncollected cost-sharing that beneficiaries fail to pay), while private payers do not typically reimburse providers for bad debt. This policy brings Medicare more in line with the private sector by gradually reducing the amount that Medicare reimburses providers for bad debt."

Eliminate Inpatient-only List
Up to $10 billion in 10-year savings
Eliminate the inpatient-only list so more same-day surgeries and procedures can be performed in lower cost, outpatient settings

Reform IRA's Drug Policies
Up to $20 billion in 10-year costs
Reform the Inflation Reduction Act's prescription drug policies to discourage price setting on innovative drugs treating rare patient populations.

HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE

Border wall funding appropriation
No score yet; deficit increase
The Homeland Committee would like funds to build border barriers, including the "Trump Wall" (a 33 ft high concrete barrier) along 700+ miles of the border.
The Homeland Committee estimates $18 billion for 734 miles of new wall, $7.8 billion to replace legacy fencing/vehicle barriers, and another $ 10 billion for additional secondary barriers.
Leadership stated the need for Rio Grande River buoys but no specifics were provided.

Again, Download the original document:

https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/28cb85c5ed1f6c52/44e83eb4-full.pdf

Finally, take a look at this:

Chairman Trump's Cultural Revolution

(Lucian K.Truscott IV's newsletter, 2-3-25) and tell me we have nothing to worry about.

• What Are Archives? Society of American Archivists)
• Archives 101: How Archival Records Are Organized (short video, Ryerson Archives and Special Collections)
• Directory of Archival Organizations in the United States and Canada (Society of American Archivists)
• So You Want to Be an Archivist (Society of American Archivists)
• Upcoming Events, National Archives (Society of American Archivists)
• Current Exhibits (U.S. National Archives, Washington, DC)

• U.S. National Archives Facebook page
• Archive Grid OCLC's WorldCat database. ArchiveGrid is largely made up of MARC records from WorldCat. OCLC Research includes over 7 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,400 archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
• A Brief Introduction to Archives (video, 8.3 minutes, University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections)

• Online Research Tools and Aids (National Archives)
---Locations of various Research Archives, Records Centers
---DocsTeach (The online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives)
---America's Founding Documents (Declaration of Independents, Constitution, Bill of Rights)
---Milestone Documents (Lee Resolution, 1776; Articles of Confederation, 1777; Treaty of Paris, 1783; Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798; etc.
---Research our records
---Veterans' Service Records
---Educator Resources
• Hanging Together (the OCLC Research blog)

• Archives 101 Part I: The Basics of Archival Acquisition and Appraisal (Connecticut League of Museums) This series of five, 1-hour live webinars provides information and instruction in the basics of archival management, including archival acquisition & appraisal; arrangement & description; creating finding aids; preservation storage & housing; and access with emphasis on best standards and practices, as well as low-cost solutions. The webinars are designed for staff and volunteers from historical societies, libraries, museums, archives and other cultural heritage organizations with historic record collections.
---Part II: Fundamentals of Archival Arrangement and Description
---Part III: Creating Finding Aids
---Part IV: Preservation Storage & Housing of Archival Collections: Guidelines & Solutions
---Part V: Making Your Archives Accessible

Let me know if I'm neglected to include an important resource. Please provide both the name of the resource and a URL.

• I’m an author and sell on Amazon: How does sales tax work? (TaxJar) "Probably the best thing about publishing your own book through Amazon Author Central is that you are not the seller of record. Why is this so great? Because it means you are not responsible for collecting the sales tax on the books you publish!

    "In this case, Amazon is the seller of record and will sell the book on your behalf. So when readers get the receipt from your book, they'll see that they bought it from Amazon and not from you directly. If you are selling your book through Amazon, Amazon takes care of charging your customers sales tax and remitting sales tax to the state. So Amazon charges and collects sales tax in states where digital books are taxable. You don't have to worry about collecting sales tax on the books you sell!

    "...A good rule of thumb is to remember that sales tax is always due if a transaction is taxable. Either Amazon (or a publisher, bookstore, etc. that you have a working relationship with) should collect tax from the customer, you should collect it from the customer, or the customer should pay use tax."

But if you do sell books directly (at a book fair or craft show, for example), you are responsible for paying sales tax on the items you sold.

These resources seem like a good primer on the topic, but let me know if I should link to others as well:
• Sales Tax Basics for Writers (Helen Sedwick)
• Selling Books & Sales Tax: Practical Things You Need to Know (Clearsight Books)
• Sales Tax Resources & Updates (Sales Tax Institute) Bookmark this page, useful for all things sales and use tax!

     Here you’ll find quick-reference charts, whitepapers, helpful tools, legislative updates, directories, FAQs and more.
• Frequently Asked Questions about Sales Tax (Sales Tax Institute)

Check out Letty Cottin Pogrebin's Dec. 20 newsletter

"Lots of political wisdom, and heed worthy warnings emanate from E.B. White’s 1940 essay, “Freedom,” written in response to Americans’ passivity in the face of Adolf Hitler’s increasingly tyrannical actions in Europe."

• American Oligarchy (Mother Jones)

For its January + February 2024 issue, Mother Jones explores the rise and power of the emerging class of billionaires—fueled by the monopolistic growth of Big Tech—who are remaking America in their own decadent and extractive image. Their bored whims and futuristic fantasies shape how and where you live and work, even as their own worlds are increasingly siloed off from the rest of us. Welcome to the American Oligarchy.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/american-oligarchy/

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

• The Rise of the American Oligarchy (by Tim Murphy, Mother Jones, January 2024)

When the US targeted Russia’s oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the trail of assets kept leading to our own backyard. Not only had our nation become a haven for shady foreign money, but we were also incubating a familiar class of yacht-owning, industry-dominating, resource-extracting billionaires. What targeting Russia’s wayward billionaires revealed about our own. American oligarchy is built on a different kind of resource, not nickel or potash, but you—your data, your attention, your money, your public square.

• It’s Time the Word “Oligarch” Lost Its Russian Veneer (Jeffrey A. Winters, Mother Jones, January 2024)

America does oligarchy better than anyone.

PART 2: HOARDING

• How the US Became the World’s Refuge for Dirty Money (by Casey Michele)

When the US targeted Russia’s oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the trail of assets kept leading to our own backyard. Not only had our nation become a haven for shady foreign money, but we were also incubating a familiar class of yacht-owning, industry-dominating, resource-extracting billionaires.

• The Dark Side of the $100 Bill (by Oliver Bullough)

Benjamins are fueling international crime and corruption. So why are we printing more than ever?

• When Gilded Age Lawmakers Saved America From Plutocracy (Daniel Schulman, Nov. 2023)

And how Biden’s team is using their playbook to take on Big Tech.

• How the Rich Keep Their Riches Out of Reach by Tim Murphy

Eight ways to hide an asset

• Refuge for the Robber Barons by Michael Mechanic.

Deranged stalkers? Bitter exes? Angry mobs? Tom Gaffney’s clients are ready.

• This Is What It Costs to Be Rich by Tim Murphy and Jacob Rosenberg (1-25-24)

Our attempt to document the uncommon common costs for the uber-wealthy.

• Martha’s Vineyard Is Being Gutted by Skyrocketing Housing Costs. Yes, You Should Care. (January 30, 2024)

The fight for affordable year-round housing in this elite summer destination offers lessons for dealing with a national crisis.

PART 3: INFLUENCING

• Philanthropy in America Is Broken (Michael Mechanic)

We taxpayers heavily subsidize ultrawealthy giving. But who really benefits?

• Billionaires’ Giving Pledge: Part Tax Strategy, Part PR Stunt (Michael Mechanic and Tim Murphy)

Has it made the world a better place? You be the judge.

• A Brief History of Superyachts (by Tim Murphy)

And how they explain the world.

• How “Woke Capitalism” Became a Right-Wing Obsession by Hannah Levintova

Vivek Ramaswamy may no longer be running for president. But his anti-ESG legacy has already won.

• Receipts. Proof. Timelines. Screenshots: Why We Can’t Look Away From Rich People’s Drama by Scaachi Koul

The uber-wealthy are losing it over the dumbest things—and we’re hooked.

• How Hollywood Learned to Eat the Rich by Morgan Jerkins (2-5-24)

From “Clueless” to “Parasite,” film and TV have long been barometers for how Americans feel about wealth.

PART 4: DOMINATING

• Elon Musk’s Texas Takeover by Abby Vesoulis (photography by Christopher Lee)

How the world’s richest man transformed the Lone Star State into “the modern incarnation of the company town.”

• There Is a Very Good Reason Why Donald Trump Thinks Everything Is Rigged by David Corn

In business, he was a master of gaming the system.

• Meet the Silicon Valley CEOs Who Insist That Greed Is Good (Politics) by Ali Breland

Even if “effective accelerationism” kills us all.

• These Billionaires Want to Disrupt Death—and Keep Their Fortunes Forever by Kalena Thomhave

Sci-fi meets Silicon Valley meets the trust industry.

• Welcome to America’s Wealthiest Zip Code by Dave Gilson. Our guide to one of the nation’s priciest plutocrat playgrounds: Fisher Island

• It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders.

"Only by ending oligarchy can we begin to realize America's promise."

• Monet Changes Everything by Ezra Chowaiki

Tainted billionaires rejoice—redemption is an auction away.

• Australia vs. Rupert Murdoch by Sean Kelly

What's the future of the aging mogul's global empire? Look to the place where it all began.