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10:10 AM ET, February 19, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
CNN:
Zelensky says Trump lives in ‘disinformation space’  —  Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Donald Trump of repeating disinformation, a day after the US president falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia.  —  Zelensky's outspoken comments were part of what is shaping …
RELATED:
Liz Goodwin / Washington Post:
After ceding power of the purse, GOP lawmakers beg Trump team for funds  —  Republican senators are asking Cabinet secretaries and other Trump officials to let money flow back into their states.  —  Republican senators find themselves in an unusual position these days …
Discussion: Vox, Axios, New York Magazine and E&E News
RELATED:
Jack Blanchard / Politico:   Playbook: Comedy night on Fox
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Democrats aim to maximize GOP pain in passing Trump agenda
Discussion: Politico, Raw Story and Fox News
Sahil Kapur / NBC News:
Despite DOGE, Trump's agenda calls for adding trillions of dollars to U.S debt
Discussion: Roll Call
Hailey Fuchs / Politico:
GOP privacy hawks brush off concerns about DOGE data dives
Discussion: Wired, NPR, Fox News and Al Jazeera
Allan Smith / NBC News:
USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them  —  In a statement, an Agriculture Department spokesperson told NBC News that officials are “working to swiftly rectify the situation.”  —  The United States Department of Agriculture on Tuesday acknowledged that …
New York Times:
DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract.  It Was Actually $8 Million.  —  The biggest single line item on the website of Elon Musk's cost-cutting team appears to include an error.  —  The Department of Government Efficiency, the federal cost-cutting initiative championed by Elon Musk …
RELATED:
Andre Tartar / Bloomberg:
DOGE Says It's Saved $55 Billion; Data Show Much Less  — Cost-cutting effort itemizes about $8.6 billion in savings  — Data includes error that inflates value of DOGE savings so far  —  The federal cost-cutting effort dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency says it has saved $55 billion …
The White House:
Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:  —  Section 1.  Policy and Purpose.  The Constitution vests all executive power in the President and charges him with faithfully executing the laws.
Discussion: The Hill, Axios, RedState and UPI
RELATED:
The White House:
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Reins in Independent Agencies to Restore a Government that Answers to the American People  —  RESTORING DEMOCRACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNMENT: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order ensuring that all federal agencies are accountable …
Politico:
Trump signs order to claim power over independent agencies  —  The action is likely to face court challenges and test a once-fringe legal theory.  —  President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House …
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Trump Media Group Sues Brazilian Judge Weighing Arrest of Jair Bolsonaro  —  The lawsuit came hours after the justice received an indictment of Brazil's former president, who is an ally of President Trump.  —  President Trump's media company sued a Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Wednesday …
RELATED:
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Brazil Charges Bolsonaro With Attempting a Coup
Jason Lange / Reuters:
Trump's approval rating slips as Americans worry about the economy  —  U.S. President Donald Trump's approval rating has ticked slightly lower in recent days as more Americans worried about the direction of the U.S. economy as the new leader threatens a host of countries with tariffs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Popular Information:
As measles outbreak rages in Texas, RFK Jr. pushes anti-vaccine message  —  The largest measles outbreak Texas has seen in over 30 years is sweeping through the western part of the state.  According to information released yesterday by the Texas Department of State Health Services, 58 cases have been confirmed throughout five counties.
RELATED:
Amanda Seitz / Associated Press:
Kennedy says panel will examine childhood vaccine schedule after promising not to change it
Discussion: ABC News and UPI
Dave Zirin / The Nation:
Why Democrats Won't Throw a Real Punch  —  Faced with existential threats from the right, the Democratic leadership remains timid; faced with demands for justice from the left, it goes on the attack.  —  Bluesky  —  Pocket  —  A relative of mine—an older gent with a penchant for salty language …
Discussion: Daily Kos
Fatima Hussein / Associated Press:
Tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims  —  The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.  Over the past few days …
Bret Stephens / New York Times:
Vance's Munich Disgrace  —  In April 1928, Joseph Goebbels, later the Third Reich's chief propagandist, wrote a newspaper essay addressing the question of why the National Socialists, despite being an “anti-parliamentarian party,” would nonetheless compete in that May's parliamentary elections.
RELATED:
Sarah Fortinsky / The Hill:   NYT's Bret Stephens slams Vance's Munich message as a ‘disgrace’
New York Times:
Struggle Over Americans' Personal Data Plays Out Across the Government  —  Employees from Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency are gaining access to vast amounts of information held by federal agencies, even as lawsuits try to stop them.
Lauren Irwin / The Hill:
Postmaster general to step down, asks for replacement  —  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a former prominent Trump fundraiser who was appointed during the president's first term, announced Tuesday he would be stepping down.  —  In a release, the U.S. Postal Service said DeJoy had notified …
RELATED:
Esther Fung / Wall Street Journal:
Postmaster General DeJoy Says He Plans to Step Down
Discussion: Washington Post and Townhall
Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
RFK 's plan to make America healthy again?  Round up people with mental health conditions in camps  —  Robert F. Kennedy wants to replace standard psychological care with unpaid labor on “wellness farms”  —  Robert F. Kennedy's “make America healthy again” motto is meant to convey …
Andrew Beaujon / Washingtonian:
Trump's Kennedy Center Cancels Pride Concert That Would Have Featured Gay Men's Chorus of Washington  —  The Kennedy Center canceled a concert planned for May 21 that was to feature the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC, performing alongside the National Symphony Orchestra.
Discussion: WUSA, Eschaton and Wall Street Journal
David Bauder / Associated Press:
Trump says AP will be curtailed at the White House until it changes its style to Gulf of America  —  President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will continue to restrict The Associated Press' access to his events and news conferences until the news outlet goes along with his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico in its reports.
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Judge halts firing of intel agency personnel involved with DEI  —  The order may amount to only a temporary reprieve.  —  A federal judge has temporarily blocked the CIA and the Office of Director of National Intelligence from firing 11 people whose jobs were eliminated to comply …
Liz Dye / Public Notice:
Unelected billionaire breaks laws to “restore” democracy  —  🗽 🗳️ 🦅 With corporate outlets obeying in advance, supporting independent political media is more important right now than ever.  Public Notice is possible thanks to paid subscribers.
Filip Timotija / The Hill:
Trump says ‘inflation is back’: ‘I had nothing to do with it’  —  President Trump is seeking to distance himself from a rise in inflation, arguing that the uptick had “nothing to do” with his return to the Oval Office.  —  Trump instead placed the blame on former President Biden in an interview Tuesday …
Washington Post:
State Dept. orders cancellation of news subscriptions around the world  —  Embassies and consulates were told to terminate subscriptions to the New York Times, the Associated Press and others.  —  The State Department has ordered the cancellation of all news subscriptions deemed …
Discussion: The Guardian
Wall Street Journal:
Inside Trump's Million-Dollar Dinners With Healthcare Executives  —  Donald Trump hosted meals with dozens of the corporate leaders during the presidential transition, in a lucrative moneymaking venture  —  First came the pharmaceutical executives.  —  Then the insurance companies and the hospital leaders.
Taylor Odisho / Latin Times:
11-Year-Old Texas Girl Bullied Over Family's Immigration Status Takes Her Own Life  —  Students also threatened to call ICE to deport the girl's family  —  Jocelynn Rojo Carranza took her life after experiencing months of relentless bullying from her sixth grade classmates …
Discussion: Mediaite
Washington Post:
U.S. weighs destroying $500 million in stockpiled covid tests  —  The government is reviewing proposals to shut down the program that ships free covid tests to American households and has been considering destroying 160 million tests.
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Musk Ally Demands Admin Access to System That Lets Government Text the Public  —  A worker at the General Services Administration told colleagues in a Slack message Tuesday that they have resigned in protest after Elon Musk ally Thomas Shedd requested “admin/root access to all components …
Discussion: Nextgov/FCW
 
 
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 More Items: 
Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech / The Hill:
Louisiana, New York battle over abortion laws: What comes next
Jennifer Sey / Washington Examiner:
Woke is dead. Nike didn't get the memo
Discussion: Fox News
Ryan Cooper / American Prospect:
Musk and Trump Are Causing the Dumbest Imperial Collapse in History
Discussion: Raw Story
Margaret Coker / ProPublica:
Georgia Touts Its Medicaid Experiment as a Success. The Numbers Tell a Different Story.
Discussion: prima donna …
Politico:
Elon Musk looks beyond Washington toward Wisconsin
Discussion: Journal Sentinel
Sam Stein / The Bulwark:
The DOGE Brain Drain Has Begun
Russell Contreras / Axios:
Early data show homicides dropped 16% in 2024
Discussion: The Fucking News
S.V. Date / HuffPost:
Donald Trump Has Already Spent $10.7 Million Of Taxpayer Money Playing Golf
Discussion: Daily Kos and Digby's Hullabaloo
 Earlier Items: 
Jasper Ward / Reuters:
Trump says he has instructed DOJ to terminate all remaining Biden-era US attorneys
Spencer Ackerman / Zeteo:
Musk and DOGE Might Soon Have Access to the Most Lucrative Defense-Contract Database of All
Discussion: CBS News
Christine Peterson / Mother Jones:
“I'm Suffering:” Holiday Massacre of Federal Workforce Is a Rude Awakening for Rural Westerners
Discussion: New York Times
Ethan Marcotte / Ethan Marcotte's website:
Moving on from 18F.  —  note: This post gets into the last few weeks of American politics.
Jennifer Bowers Bahney / Raw Story:
'Stephen, let's calm down': Yelling Trump aide berates host as he loses cool live on CNN
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Netflix agrees to buy WBD's studios and streaming business in an $82.7B cash-and-stock deal; the transaction is expected to close after Q3 2026

The Guardian:
Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands exit Eurovision after Israel received an all-clear to compete; the BBC and Germany's SWR plan to participate

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The EU fines X €120M for breaching online content rules, the first fine under the DSA, citing issues including the deceptive design of its blue checkmarks

 
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