Today's Liberal News
Trump’s spending freeze spreads chaos across US
Supporters of climate, infrastructure, mortgage, tech, health, veterans’ and other projects expressed alarm as tens of thousands of programs appeared possibly at risk.
Lael Brainard’s ‘Crisis Management Agency’ — and Her Warning For Trump
Joe Biden’s top economic adviser opens up on harrowing moments from her time in the White House, and what makes her nervous about the Trump agenda.
Stephen Miran is Trump’s pick to lead Council of Economic Advisers
Miran has called for a sweeping overhaul of the Fed to ensure greater political control over the central bank, including giving the president the power to fire board members at will.
Trump Guts EPA’s Environmental Justice Office, Putting Poorest Communities of Color at More Risk
The Trump administration is planning to shutter the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights at the Environmental Protection Agency and has placed nearly 170 employees on administrative leave. “I’m very concerned about the deregulation and the focus on corporate profits,” says Mustafa Santiago Ali, the former head of the environmental justice program at the EPA.
“Authoritarian Rampage”: Trump/Musk Sued to Block DOGE Access to Confidential Info of Millions
A lawsuit by a coalition of labor unions Thursday prompted the Labor Department to agree not to release any sensitive economic and privacy data to DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk. Musk’s group has already gained access to sensitive files and computer systems across other key agencies as part of a push to restructure much of the federal government.
Holding Musk Accountable: Rep. Ro Khanna on Stopping DOGE’s “Unconstitutional” Power Grab
We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California about the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on the federal bureaucracy and the gutting of various agencies, led by the president’s unelected billionaire adviser Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“No DOGE employee should have access to any of Americans’ sensitive, confidential information, and they should not have access to be able to stop payments,” he says.
“Educational Arson”: Trump Moves to Abolish Dept. of Education Amid Broader Attack on Public Schools
As the Trump administration, led in part by his unelected adviser Elon Musk, sets its sights on cutting the Department of Education, we speak to longtime educator Jesse Hagopian about what he calls an “extremist, authoritarian power grab to dismantle public education and enforce ideological conformity.” Hagopian, whose new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education, traces the history of racist educational censorship, adds, “This isn’t about protecting children.
The Most Controversial Super Bowl Ad Was Also One of the Worst. The Best One Nobody Saw Coming.
Even Patrick Mahomes couldn’t outflop these ads.
The Most Controversial Super Bowl Ad Was Also One of the Worst. The Best One, Nobody Saw Coming.
Even Patrick Mahomes couldn’t out-flop these ads.
What Kendrick Lamar’s Halftime Show Said
The Super Bowl halftime show is an opportunity for big, dumb fun: explosions, laser shows, left sharks. But big, dumb fun isn’t Kendrick Lamar’s thing. The 37-year-old Los Angeles rapper and Pulitzer Prize winner prefers subtlety, smarts, and fun that’s tinged by danger and unease. Amid tough, tense circumstances, he put on a tough, tense—and quite satisfying—show.
The event framed itself in self conscious terms. “This is the great American game,” Samuel L.
A Super Bowl Spectacle Over the Gulf
President Donald Trump’s promise—and subsequent executive order—to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America displayed a showman’s flair for branding.
Today Trump could take that showmanship a step further when Air Force One flies him across the Gulf of Mexico from his private Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
What Is Hims Actually Selling?
The ad that Hims & Hers Health plans to air during the Super Bowl comes at you with rapid-fire visual overload—a giant jiggling belly, bare feet on scales, X-ray results, sugary sodas, a pie in the oven, a measuring tape snug around a waistline—all set to the frenetic hip-hop beat of Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” A disembodied voice warns: “This system wasn’t built to help us. It was built to keep us sick and stuck.
Jethro’s Corner
I Maps
The corner of Ashmun & Grove & the sometimes
When the only evidence is a map; the disappearing
English of old: plat, a funky word that exists most
In memory, meant to make a plan or map of;
To draw to scale; to plot.
A man who cannot read coordinates can still plot
On his freedom. Imagine a rectangle on the oldest
Map in these nine squares of geography
Once called a wilderness.
You’re Not Going to Like What Happened to the Super Bowl Ad
Companies are so invested in making their Super Bowl ads a success that we’ve lost something in the process.
The Real Reason Tech Bros Are Following Elon Musk’s Lead to Leave Delaware
Mark Zuckerberg and other execs might follow Elon Musk out the door.
Trump Is Deleting the Data That Keeps This Country Running
The gutting of government statistics is a recipe for chaos.
Money Talks: Is Silicon Valley Coming for Our Democracy?
Historian Quinn Slobodian joins Felix Salmon to discuss how his book on market radicals is more relevant than ever.
DOGE working with two Trump health appointees to examine Medicare and Medicaid books
The Trump political appointees are leading the agency’s “collaboration” with Elon Musk’s team.
Health agencies sued after taking down data following Trump order
It’s the latest lawsuit pushing back on the Trump administration’s shakeup of the federal government.
How Bill Cassidy got to ‘yes’ on RFK Jr.
The Louisiana Republican said he hoped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be “a partner” in promoting good health.
Bill Cassidy’s decision on RFK Jr. could jeopardize his Senate career
As a doctor, Cassidy is troubled by RFK Jr. As a politician, he has reason to support him anyway.
Finance Committee to vote on RFK Jr. Tuesday
Kennedy’s approval by the committee is far from certain.
Is Aziz Ansari Sorry?
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Your Opinions on Her Wardrobe Are Probably Unwelcome
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
What Role Does HR Play in the #MeToo Era?
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Trump’s spending freeze spreads chaos across US
Supporters of climate, infrastructure, mortgage, tech, health, veterans’ and other projects expressed alarm as tens of thousands of programs appeared possibly at risk.