FeedCity

Trump & Musk have discussed placing “spies” in gov’t offices to root out anti-MAGA sentiment so gov’t employees can’t inform Americans about the ongoing coup. (And some fed. employees are using Reddit to get news on what’s happening in their depts.)

More on Musk’s alarming unconstitutional seizure of the Treasury Department payments system: they’ve had admin access since Jan 31 and have already made changes to the system’s *live code*. (Good luck getting your tax refund if you voted for Harris?)

VERY VERY BAD: Under the direction of Elon Musk, a 25-year-old engineer has seized admin privileges to the code for “Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government”, incl. Social Security, tax payments, etc.

“Musk’s political project with DOGE is actually quite straightforward: The world’s richest man appears to be indiscriminately dismantling the government with an eye toward consolidating power and punishing his political enemies.”

It Only Tuesday. “Not only do Americans have most of Tuesday morning to contend with, but all of Tuesday afternoon and then Tuesday night.”

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin have one day to find out if they should pod together forever after rewatching Richard Linklater’s 2004 romantic drama ‘Before Sunset.' Watch this episode on our Ringer Movies YouTube channel! Producer: Craig Horlbeck Video Producers: Jack Sanders and Chia Hao Tat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Donald Trump’s Executive Orders Aim to Create Jim Crow for Trans People. “The orders also, variously, deny people the ability to exercise control over their own bodies, medical care, and future, while also infringing on rights of free expression.”

The LBJ Presidential Library, regarding a largely ad-libbed address Lyndon Johnson gave to a group of 150 non-incumbent Democratic candidates for Congress in 1966: He talked about the difference between Republicans and Democrats: “We’re for something, and they are agains...

Speaking of books, Simon & Schuster announced a new one: Apple isn’t just a brand; it’s the world’s most valuable company and creator of the twenty-first century’s defining product. The iPhone has revolutionized the way we live, work and connect. But Apple is now a v...

Speaking of cheating, my favorite book from Trump’s first term was Rick Reilly’s Commander in Cheat, which I linked to, with an excerpt still available at The Guardian, when it came out in 2019. I’ve been a fan of Reilly’s writing since I was a teenager and he was the back-page columnist for Sports Illustrated; this is the book Reilly was born to write. I just picked my copy off my shelf and started to re-read it, and got sucked right back in. Posting this link is my way of forcing myself to put it down until tonight.

(Main link here is an Amazon affiliate one, which will make me rich if you purchase through it. If you prefer not to buy books from Amazon, here’s a link to Bookshop.org.)

Link: amzn.to/3Q8UJWd

Drew Harwell, at The Washington Post (gift link, via Harwell himself on Bluesky — which seemingly uses a ludicrously long 397-character token in the URL): But after poring over his live-streamed gameplay, online sleuths recently made a shocking accusation: Musk had cheat...

Heather Cox Richardson is perhaps too dispassionate in her piece about Trump’s/Musk’s ongoing attempts destroy the US government but these are the facts and her sources list is well-worth making your way through.

Scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder on the 2025 coup: “The people who now dominate the executive branch of the government…are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation.”

A complete archive of all CDC datasets uploaded before January 28th, 2025. Under the direction of Trump, the CDC has been removing data related to gender, vaccines, and climate change.

Ezra Klein in an audio essay/transcribed column at The New York Times: 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 hopi...

A simple guide to using Signal for government workers (written by a US federal employee). If you need to communicate securely with others (coworkers, journalists, etc.) during this coup attempt, this is the way to do it.

Dylan Patel is the founder of SemiAnalysis, a research & analysis company specializing in semiconductors, GPUs, CPUs, and AI hardware. Nathan Lambert is a research scientist at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and the author of a blog on AI called Interconnects. Thank yo...

A delight, as usual.

(My one suggestion for 2025’s list: My Dad’s Chips. Holy hell are these good potato chips. I’ve got a particular weakness for the French Onion ones. Chef’s kiss. Distribution seems mostly limited to the northeast for now.)

Link: cabel.com/2025/01/27/the-snacks-cereals-of-2024/

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Link: workos.com/radar?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=RSS…