February 12th, 2024 - The Further Enshittification of the U.S.
Since the news from the current administration continues to be delivered in a firehose 'flood the area' type manner, I figured I'd create a newsletter of sorts with all the news stories and events that stuck out for me in the course of a day as a United States citizen watching this country topple under the weight of the need of its citizens to stay largely ignorant of what's actually happening around them.
#1 Yesterday, Elon Musk - while his convenient human shield roamed around behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office picking his nose, said the following to reporters: “We post our actions to the DOGE website. All of our actions are maximally transparent. I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.” At the moment, doge.gov is a mostly blank page with a small image that states:
There are no clickable links.
#2 The Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Mitch McConnell voted NO. All other Republicans supported Gabbard. ALL Democrats voted NO. Gabbard has taken a sympathetic stance toward Russia and Syria under the Assad family's rule.
#3 House Republicans have released their budget resolution. They are aiming to cut Medicaid by $880 billion over ten years (an 11% cut in federal Medicaid spending).
#4 Earlier today, $80 million went missing from New York city bank accounts. It was apparently stolen by Kristi Noem's order, who apparently took offense at it being used to house migrants.
#5 The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, has now grown to a record size of 319,233 active members.
14,000 new members have apparently joined in the past five weeks.
That’s nearly as many as the previous 12 months.
Jacob Romans, a registered nurse at the Minneapolis VA and president of AFGE Local 3669, says his local of about 2,000 nurses, physicians and other VA workers has added 100 members in the last two weeks alone.
“They’re looking for protections, and they don’t know what’s going to happen,” Romans said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anger.”
6# Earlier today, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth - speaking to defence ministers at a lunchtime meeting in Brussels, said, “I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe.”
“We must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth said, sketching out an initial position for any peace negotiations with Russia.
“Chasing this illusory goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he added, though this could be interpreted as effectively acknowledging the annexation of Crimea, and large parts of the Donbas by Russia.
Kinda sounds like a parent chiding their quieter child for complaining that their loud abusive child took something from them.
"Just give it to him, Jimmy."
The fallout:
#7 The fucking Trump themed, gilded goat statue at Mar-a-Lago
Vinnik, the owner and operator of one of the world's largest currency exchanges, was allegedly instrumental in facilitating the transfer of billions of dollars for criminals across the globe, supporting drug trafficking rings, ransomware attacks and the corruption of public officials.
Last year, Vinnik pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder billions of dollars through cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e. The Department of Justice alleged under Vinnik's operation, BTC-e facilitated over $9 billion in worldwide transactions, serving as one of the main ways for cyber criminals to launder and move their criminal proceeds.
BTC-e has been implicated in multiple wide-ranging crimes, according to the Department of Justice, which alleges Vinnik himself was responsible for more than $120 million in losses.
#10 Rev. Dr. William Barber II speaking Truth to Power at the Save the Civil Service rally yesterday
As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has ravaged its way though the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), cutting its workforce from 10,000 to just 300, hundreds of organizations providing vital safety services have been upended. Multiple children’s safety groups—including those fighting online child sexual abuse and exploitation—say their efforts have been severely hamstrung.
Groups identifying victims and providing care for those who have been subject to online exploitation or human trafficking are struggling to support the vulnerable children, multiple organizations tell WIRED. Such child safety projects often take place in poorer countries, which can have fewer resources to support victims or investigate crimes. Sources say that funding for safe houses has been paused, potentially exposing victims to more harm, and efforts that identify criminals behind child exploitation have been put on hold.
“It will be very hard for us to identify the victims,” says Chantal Yelu Mulop, from the Coordination for Youth and the Fight Against Sexual Violence and Trafficking in Persons (CJVFFT), in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While the war-torn country faces new fighting and humanitarian crises, children have long been trafficked to work in cobalt mines linked to the production of smartphone and EV batteries.
#12 The Washington Post published several hundred words about Jonathan Mitchell being a "renegade" without explaining that his biggest project is trying to revive a 150-year-old law that could ban abortion nationwide
#13 Musk has removed a major Obstacle to His ‘X Money’ Vision
“Elon Musk is working his way into the financial products marketplace right now,” said Richard Cordray, who was the bureau’s inaugural director under President Barack Obama and remained in the job through the first year of President Trump’s first term. “It’s very convenient for him to be trying to neutralize the regulator that he would have to answer to.”
#14 The State Department’s procurement forecast, revised as of late December 2024, lists Tesla as the recipient of the largest expected contract, with Marco Rubio’s department planning to buy $400,000,000 worth of “Armored Tesla.”
