You forget in four years the frenetic pace of news from Trump’s last time. There’s a bunch of news. This week DOGE, corruption scandals, tariffs, and guns feature heavily.
Let’s start with DOGE first.
From Reason, DOGE has uncovered fraud in its review of federal spending.
From Reason, 5 of USAID’s worst scandals. Folding it back into State was a good move. Let the diplomats direct how we use soft diplomacy.
From Reason, in the name of transparency, DOGE is starting to put its finding on the web. However, according to 404, there was a lack of security on the database.
Let’s discuss a couple of big corruption scandals.
One concern with Musk was that he would use his influence to direct more government money to his companies. From NPR, State was set to buy $400 million of armored Cybertrucks. No, it was armored electric vehicles. No, never mind, we aren’t really going to buy anything.
The other big one brewing was the Thursday Night Massacre. BBC has the overview. Trump ordered corruption charges to be dropped against New York Mayor Eric Adams in return for Adams’ help with immigration sweeps. Seven New York prosecutors resigned instead. The Free Press took a look at the Trump-appointed lead prosecutor who first refused the order to drop charges and resigned. At least Trump says the quiet part out loud when he’s doing corrupt actions.
A couple of Reason articles on tariffs.
Why steel and aluminum tariffs are bad for American energy.
Reciprocal tariffs could be the largest tax increase in the last eighty years.
Let’s look at guns.
From The Hill, an article by David Yamane looking at the changing face of gun ownership.
From The Reload, Trump orders a review of federal gun policy. One hopes that it will include conforming the rules around carrying concealed on federal property to the laws of the state.
From Reason, Little Rock is getting rid of its Shot Spotter contract. The city joins many others in realizing how worthless the whole system is.
From Reuters, Baltimore is suing Glock over “Glock switches”. It will be interesting to see how this runs up against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
Also from TFB, a review of Magpul’s TMAGs. I will admit, I’m very interested in these. Particularly in the Bren.
A couple more Reason articles.
What is the SEC hiding with all the gag orders it puts on the people it prosecutes?
Now on to other stories of interest.
From Wired, Thomson Reuters wins against an AI company using its data to make a competing product. The case has some interesting implications for the wider use of copyright materials by LLMs.
The Hollywood Reporter has an article on more people watching YouTube on televisions than any other type of device. I find this interesting as the television is the device I watch the least when it comes to YouTube.
From NPR, the Trump restores the name of Fort Bragg, by renaming the base after a completely different Bragg. Honestly? This is very clever. I fully agree with the renaming of bases named after traitorous Confederates. I also understand servicepeoples feeling connected to their bases and not want to seeing them renamed.
From The Hill, Joanne Fabrics is expecting to close some 500 of its 850 stores as it deals with a second bankruptcy. Fortunately for The Wife and MIL, the one they normally frequent wasn’t on the list. Still, it’s not a good sign for one of their favorite stores.
From a local station, a Florida lawmaker is pushing a bill to limit the amount of total time a person can serve in the Florida legislature. Honestly, this is one of the better proposals I’ve seen in regards to term limits.
From another local station, pet owners are urged to get their pets re-microchipped after Save This Life went bankrupt and stopped monitoring the chips they put in.
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