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Trump Hands Musk Even More Power - The Wednesday AM Quickie 2/12/25

By Corey Pein —

Why has Trump's deportation czar been meeting privately with associates of the Proud Boys? There's no shortage of questions that need answering these days, but that's one that shouldn't get lost. - Corey

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THE BIG NEWS

Trumpocalypse: Miserable Oligarch Musk Looms Over Trump's Shoulder as He Signs Away the Government

  • Elon Musk's Goon Squad Is 'Actively Dismantling' the Department of Education "It's not legal. They know it's not legal. But they're doing it anyway," New Mexico Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury says of the departmental contracts and programs Musk's team began canceling this week. "The only recourse we have right now is to go to the courts. I can tell you, we will absolutely be in the courts immediately." via HuffPost, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press.
  • 'The Courts Should Take a Step Back,' Says House Speaker Mike Johnson, Who Has Handed His Power to Trump Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, meanwhile, said at a public Q&A session yesterday that courts must rely on their "soft power," namely "the power of reason," to ensure compliance with their orders; no fewer than six federal judges so far this week have tried to put the brakes on Trump's unconstitutional orders. via HuffPost and Politico.
  • Sad and Predictable: Destroying USAID Caused Immediate Harm to Sick and Starving Children in Somalia Meanwhile in Washington, DC, Trump fired the inspector general for USAID, Paul Martin, one day after Martin's office published "a widely read report warning that more than $489 million in food assistance was at risk of spoilage or potential diversion after the Trump administration implemented its aid freeze and stop-work order." via the Associated Press and the Washington Post.
  • White House Banishes the Associated Press Over Its Refusal to Rename Gulf of Mexico as 'Gulf of America' Danish lawmakers, meanwhile, responded negatively to a bill introduced by Georgia Republican Rep. Earl "Buddy" Carter authorizing Trump to take over Greenland and rename it "Red, White, and Blueland"; one rightwing Danish lawmaker said that "if these people can't see how absurd they appear, they are out of touch with reality." via the Washington Post, HuffPost, and the AP.
  • Trump's Education Department Orders College and High School Sports Associations to Erase Records of Any Award-Winning Trans Athletes The department's press release quoted disgruntled former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who in 2022 tied for fifth place in a competition won by Lia Thomas, a trans woman who swam for the University of Pennsylvania. via NBC News and the AP.
  • As-Yet-Unconfirmed FBI Director Kash Patel Secretly Directed Purge of Agents "The Washington Post reported last week that Patel was paid $25,000 in 2024 to appear in a film produced by Igor Lopatonok, a producer whose previous projects include a pro-Russian influence campaign that received money from a fund created by Russian President Vladimir Putin"; Senate Democrats have questions. via the Washington Post and NBC News.
  • Pope Francis Publicly Refutes Catholic Convert JD Vance's Made-Up Anti-Immigrant Theology Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, meanwhile, said that the Trump administration's carve-out for white South Africans to resettle in the US as refugees while refusing – and persecuting – all others is "plainly wrong and ridiculous." via the AP and HuffPost.
  • Military Families Heckle Pete Hegseth on Visit to US Base in Germany Dozens of American students at Patch Middle School in Stuttgart, meanwhile, walked out in protest of the Defense Secretary's visit, in a separate protest organized by a 13-year-old girl concerned about the Trumpist crackdown on racial and gender diversity. via NBC News and the Washington Post.

Jordan's King Abdullah Flatters Trump at White House, Then Rejects His Plan for Palestinians

Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House yesterday. Abdullah stroked Trump's ego by praising his diplomatic gifts and "lofty goals," before posting online that he had conveyed the "steadfast" and "unified Arab position" against Trump's illegal and insane plan to ethnically clease Gaza by forcing Palestinians to relocate to Jordan and Egypt, then take over the territory as US property. "We will have Gaza," Trump told reporters yesterday. "We're going to take it, we're going to hold it, we're going to cherish it." Meanwhile, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to cancel the ceasefire in Gaza if Hamas does not release its hostages by Saturday; per the Associated Press, "Hamas accused Israel of not holding up its end of the deal by initially delaying the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza over an earlier dispute, carrying out strikes across the territory and hindering the entry of tents, mobile homes and medical supplies for hospitals."

Zelenskyy Prepares His Pitch to Trump, Who's Already Cutting Deals with Putin

JD Vance and Donald Trump's special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellog, will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Politico reports. Vance, who said "I don't really care what happens to Ukraine" after Russia invaded in 2022, will be setting up a date for Zelenskyy to meet with Trump in the US. Trump has separately been "dealing with" Aspiring Tsar Vladimir Putin, who approved the release of an American prisoner, Marc Fogel, under undisclosed terms that Trump yesterday described as "very fair, very, very fair, very reasonable." Well, okay, if you say so! Some European powers are proposing to "take the lead if the Americans don't" in providing a postwar peacekeeping force in Ukraine, but Zelenksyy tells the Guardian that "security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees." Fighting continues, with Russia and Ukraine targeting one another's energy infrastructure in strikes yesterday.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • California Regulator Approves $1 Billion Bailout of Fire Insurance Fund Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed by Altadena residents accuses Southern California Edison of tampering with evidence that the utility's equipment started the Eaton fire that devastated the city. via the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press.
  • FBI 'Discovers' 2,400 Previously Undisclosed Records Related to the JFK Assassination "If they are really new assassination documents, then it raises a whole bunch of questions about how they were missed for all of these years," notes Gerald Posner, author of a book on the Kennedy assassination. via the AP.
  • Shopify Takes Down Ye's Shop Selling Swastika T-Shirts He Advertised on Fox Affiliates During the Super Bowl "I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent," the disgraced rapper said before deactivating his X account on Sunday, after posting "I love Hitler" and "I'm a Nazi" to his 30 million followers. via NBC News and the Washington Post.
  • No Need to Worry About the Changing Shape of Earth's Mysterious Inner Core, Scientists Say Newly detected shifts in the "hot, solid ball of metal" at the center of the Earth could explain recent "jerks" in our planet's magnetic field. via BBC News and CNN.

SOME NUMBER

24 million

That's the minimum number of flu cases reported across the US this season, the worst in years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flu vaccination rates for children are down nationwide more than 6 percent over the last two years, the Los Angeles Times reports, contributing to at least 57 pediatric deaths. "It's definitely time if somebody hasn't gotten their flu vaccine yet. Today is the day," hospital epidemiologist Inessa Gendlina tells the Washington Post.

ON THE SHOW TODAY

2/12: It's Hump Day! Sam speaks with Mary Therese Snyder, an employee with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to discuss what it's been like as a federal worker given the Trump administration's constant interferences into their workplaces. Then, he speaks with Sam Bagenstos, law professor at the University of Michigan, to discuss the Trump administration's executive orders and their defeats in the courts so far.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

Curtis Yarvin's Cult for Billionaire Morons

This makes me want to get a haircut and toss my leather jacket.

Democratic Party's AOC Snub Is Backfiring Big Time

They're "pissed" that people are calling their offices – so keep it up!

PARTING WORDS

"It occurred to me that I was dying."

-- Famed author Salman Rushdie, 77, testifying yesterday at the trial of Hadi Matar, 27, who rushed and repeatedly stabbed him onstage in New York in 2022. Friday marks the 36th anniversary of the day that Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against Rushdie over his novel "The Satanic Verses."

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