Associated Press (2/4/25) evidently needed the work of ten reporters to produce “Elon Musk Tightens Grip on Federal Government as Democrats Raise Alarms.”

At first blush, the story might seem to convey concern, but look closer: We see Musk matter-of-factly described as a “special government employee, which subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures than other workers.”

Right now, a hard-fought, life-saving ceasefire in Gaza is straining under the weight of multiple, bellicose threats. While we continue to hold out hope for the bombs to collect dust and the remaining hostages to be reunited with their families, the likelihood we see renewed suffering and pain in the coming days is high. 

As we sit on the cusp of a new wave of violence that could upend an entire region for generations to come, the Trump administration is moving forward to supply $7.4 BILLION in missiles, bombs, and bullets to the Israeli government.[1]

For almost a decade, we’ve been watching the Republican Party die over and over. And not in a Deadpool way. It doesn’t rise from each death and return to normal. It just hobbles along, with less life, less relevance, and even less political force.

On February 10, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) [created by Elizabeth Warren after the 2008 economic collapse] Acting Director Russell Vought [who authored the 2025 Program] announced to CFPB staff and contractors that the independent agency’s office was closed and that they should not “perform any work tasks.” Prior to announcing the office closure, Vought halted funding for the CFPB, describing the agency’s funds as “excessive in the current fiscal environment.”  The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has since accessed the CFPB’s

Elon Musk and Elizabeth Warren (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Dear Republicans,

When I was a kid, my dad was a Republican activist. He gave me John Stormer’s None Dare Call It Treason when I was around 10; the summer I was 13, I went door-to-door with him for Barry Goldwater, even though he insisted on calling himself an “Eisenhower Republican” or, when he was feeling expansive, a “Lincoln Republican.” My younger brother was a Republican political consultant in the 1970s before abandoning the GOP.

By Ralph Nader
February 7, 2025

Rise up people and fast. Tyrant Trump and his Musk-driven gangsters are launching a fascistic coup d’état. Much of everything you like about federal/civil service for your health, safety, and economic well-being and protections is being targeted.

A worker removes the name of the U.S. Agency for International Development from its headquarters on Friday. Credit: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

ith each passing day, we’re seeing more signs of our federal government becoming on oligarchy that puts the economic interests of the ultra-rich above the needs of ordinary Americans. In the face of this billionaire takeover in Washington, state governments need to step up and fight for the working class. Here are eight ways states can combat inequality and support economic justice.

Surely, the “greatest democracy in the world” should not leave any room for doubt about the integrity of its elections. Yet presidential elections in the U.S. are now reflexively met with conspiracy theories, and the past two have been mired with allegations of rigging. And three weeks after the new president was inaugurated, and as far as the public knows, swing states have still not conducted the post-election audits recommended by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Rep. Al Green at Joe Biden's State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on March 7, 2024. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.

From Amanda Taub in NY Times Opinion, February 5, 2025

The official death count of Israel’s genocide is climbing as hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians resolutely march back to the north of Gaza. That’s in part because those returning to their demolished homes have been unearthing the remains of their missing loved ones whose deaths went unconfirmed for months.

Musk has seized hold of critical levers of power and authority within the federal government, apparently enabling him to destroy federal agencies at will, barring congressional action or judicial pushback.

All of a sudden, last Friday, you could not view C.D.C. data about H.I.V., or its guidelines for PrEP, the prophylactic treatment to prevent H.I.V. transmission, or guidelines for other sexually-transmitted diseases. You couldn’t find surveillance data on hepatitis or tuberculosis, either, or the youth-risk behavior survey, or any of the agency’s domestic violence data. If you were a doctor hoping to consult federal guidance about postpartum birth control, that was down too.

Trump at his press conference with Netanyahu on Tuesday. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

CAIR staff and leaders are flanked by representatives from MAPA, JVP Boston, Arlington for Palestine, Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, and others at a January 30, 2025 press conference designating Harvard a "hostile campus". Photo: CAIR-MA

Palestinians return to northern Gaza following ceasefire deal. Source: @ahmed_darabi

At a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 4, Donald Trump proposed that the U.S. expel Gaza Palestinians and assume long-term ownership of the Gaza Strip.  

As critical elections approach, voters are being bombarded with harmful myths, misrepresentations, and outright lies about people who are immigrants. More than 45 million people living in the United States were born elsewhere.

I expected the incompetence and the racism, and the first few days of the Trump Administration fulfilled those expectations. The wholesale assault on diversity–not just the elimination of DEI, but the scrubbing of any mention of minorities from websites (including those used by medical researchers)–accompanied the nominations of pathetically unqualified Whites, unintended confirmation of the charge that MAGA defines “merit” as “White guys.”

Since Donald Trump assumed the Presidency on January 20, he has issued a flurry of executive orders which will both directly cut living standards for working people and make it harder for us to organize and fight to improve our working and living conditions.