Top Items:

Trump begins firings of FAA air traffic control staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash — The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision …
Discussion:
USA Today, Axios, The Hill, Econbrowser, Eschaton and Pharyngula
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Hundreds of FAA probationary workers fired by Trump administration, union says — The Trump administration has started firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration probationary employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, according to their union.
Discussion:
MeidasTouch News and New Republic

Our Government Is Experiencing a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly — Musk is moving fast and breaking important things — Last month SpaceX carried out a test launch of its in-development Starship rocket. Liftoff was achieved, but as the company later announced, “Starship experienced …

Hundreds of FAA employees let go as Trump's mass layoffs continue
Discussion:
Forbes, passnational.org and WUSA
Lauren Irwin / The Hill:
FAA firings begin weeks after deadly crash near DC

Musk's DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS — The unusual request would put sensitive data about millions of American taxpayers in the hands of Trump political appointees. — Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily-guarded Internal Revenue Service system …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, CBS News, CNBC, The Guardian, Fortune, Talking Points Memo, Blaze Media, Raw Story, Axios, Mother Jones, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Nextgov/FCW
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‘Five alarm warning’: Possible DOGE access to private taxpayer data sparks outcry — The Elon Musk-run effort wants to study a system that includes tax returns, Social Security numbers and other information. — Democrats and tax experts are sounding alarms about a plan by Elon Musk's DOGE team …
Discussion:
Staten Island Advance and Raw Story

DOGE-affiliated employee has accessed IRS system with sensitive taxpayer information — The Integrated Data Retrieval System allows IRS employees to access taxpayer information. — WASHINGTON — An Internal Revenue Service employee who is affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency …
Discussion:
Bloomberg and The Japan Times

Trump Voters Splinter Over His Rapid Shake-Up of Washington — Some core supporters love his no-holds-barred approach, but several swing voters are taken aback at his early moves
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Trump administration pressures Romania to lift restrictions on Tate brothers — Tristan and Andrew Tate have been charged with sexual misconduct, organised crime and money laundering — The Trump administration has pressured Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions …
Discussion:
Raw Story

Rubio spars with Brennan over Vance's Munich speech — Secretary of State Marco Rubio sparred with CBS host Margaret Brennan over Vice President Vance's speech in Munich. — Rubio joined Brennan on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, where he was asked what Vance accomplished by meeting with a leader …
Discussion:
The Federalist, Racket News, CBS News, Mediaite, Townhall, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, The Daily Wire, Twitchy, Raw Story, Chicago Boyz, The Gateway Pundit, Blaze Media, HuffPost, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, New York Post, Fox News, Newsbusters, The Post Millennial, Washington Examiner and RedState
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Vance's real warning to Europe — Europeans need to reduce their dangerous dependence on an adversarial America — When JD Vance took the stage at the Munich Security Conference last week, he issued a stern warning. The US vice-president told the assembled politicians and diplomats …
Discussion:
Asia Times

Elon Musk's X blocks links to Signal, the encrypted messaging service — Signal has been a primary method of communication for federal workers looking to blow the whistle on DOGE. — Elon Musk's social media platform, X, is currently banning links to “Signal.me,” a URL used by the encrypted messaging service Signal.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, The Verge, Forbes and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »
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CDC ‘disease detectors’ among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts — Administration officials last week informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce as it targeted federal probationary employees. — The Trump administration on Saturday terminated hundreds …
Discussion:
Forbes, The Independent and Daily Mail
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Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order — The Washington Post this week backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause. — The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement …
Discussion:
New Republic and The Independent, more at Mediagazer »

The Marco Rubio guide to survival is not working well — The secretary of State is taking positions that were once anathema and sounding very Trumpy online. — It is becoming increasingly clear that Marco Rubio is secretary of State in name only. — Since taking over Foggy Bottom …
Discussion:
OutsideTheBeltway

How the Woke Right Replaced the Woke Left — The hypocrisy of Trump's language wars — One of the defining features of the social-justice orthodoxy that swept through American culture between roughly the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 to Hamas's assault on Israel in 2023 was the policing of language.

Judge calls rare hearing on a holiday in case against Musk's DOGE — A U.S. judge has scheduled a rare holiday court hearing on Monday, in a case brought by Democratic state attorneys general seeking to protect major federal agencies from Elon Musk's government cost-cutting team known as DOGE.

Jan. 6 Rioters Argue Pardons Apply to Charges Including Murder Plot, Child Porn — Defendants argue that Trump pardons should absolve them of additional crimes, some discovered during investigations of the Capitol riot
Discussion:
Associated Press, OutsideTheBeltway, Staten Island Advance, Raw Story and Washington Post

Trump Targets a Growing List of Those He Sees as Disloyal … “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,” said the lawyer Mark Zaid.Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Discussion:
Raw Story

NAACP spending guide urges Black Americans to avoid companies that dumped DEI — The NAACP is urging Black Americans to refrain from shopping at retailers that have stepped back from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. — The nation's oldest civil rights organization released …

Mike Pence emerges as one of the few Republicans willing to challenge Trump 2.0 — His group spent nearly $1 million on ads opposing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump's pick to lead the nation's health agencies. He's delivering speeches urging the president to stand with longstanding foreign allies …

Trump Posted 14 Times About His Daytona 500 Trip, Nothing About Multi-State Flooding — An indifferent Trump was chauffeured around the racetrack as Kentucky mourned 8 deaths including a mom and her 7 year old child — On Saturday, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social:

Conservative Party leader in Canada pledges to respond forcefully to Trump tariffs — Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada's Conservative Party, pledged on Saturday to respond forcefully to tariffs imposed by President Trump that harm the Canadian people or their economy.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, The Independent and Bloomberg

Musk and Trump Are Cutting Popular Programs. That's Deliberate. … One particularly sadistic aspect of Elon Musk's and Donald Trump's rampage through our government is that they're cutting programs that are popular. To some observers, that might seem like bad politics, in line with the juvenile …