Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Musk’s DOGE agency launches official website with Dogecoin logo
Trump Meme Coin Creates Hurdles in the Trenches for Solana Traders
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Trump Withdraws U.S. from World Health Organization
Trump moved quickly on Monday to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, a move that public health experts say will undermine the nation’s standing as a global health leader and make it harder to fight the next pandemic.
TikTok:
Politics:
According to Grok, we’re approaching the time when things all began to fall apart:
There Is No Limit on Trump’s Ego
It is customary for human beings inheriting enormous power over others to show a bit of humility before exercising it. This is why presidential inaugurations include ritualistic invocations of national traditions, hallowed precedents, and divine favor. Those staging the second inauguration of Donald Trump did their best to surround the man with reminders that he stands in the shadow of leaders much greater than he can rightly claim to be, and in the presence of institutions, from Congress to the courts to the armed forces sworn to defend the Constitution, that constrain his authority.
The reality that Trump doesn’t recognize any such restraints was made most evident by his reluctance to bow before the supreme authority of God Almighty, as he stood open-eyed during the invocations of the deity to bless his puny human efforts. Indeed, he seemed to regard God as a peer or perhaps as an aide in his confident assertion that the Lord of Hosts had saved him from assassination out of divine concern for his holy role in restoring American Greatness.
‘Nothing Will Stand In Our Way’
With that six-word vow, President Trump described how he planned to make his second term in office differ from his first. Now, after a four-year interregnum that began with political exile and ended with his improbable resurrection, the great disrupter made clear that he does not intend to be thwarted this time in making America far more conservative at home and more imperial abroad.
In his 29-minute inaugural address, Mr. Trump wasted no time on lofty appeals to American ideals. Instead, he spoke with a tone of aggression intended to be heard by domestic and foreign audiences as a warning that America under a more experienced Donald Trump will not take no for an answer.
CBS Sucking Up to Convicted Felon
Fascinating news this afternoon that CBS and its parent company Paramount are considering settling a lawsuit Trump filed against them late last year alleging “election interference” and demanding $10 billion in damages. We know there’s been a lot of this of late. ABC settled an incredibly weak case Trump brought over George Stephanopoulos’ correct use of the word “rape” to describe what a jury in New York concluded Trump had done to E. Jean Carroll. But there’s weak and there’s weak. The suit against CBS isn’t weak. It’s absurd. There’s no tort of editing. But Paramount is considering settling and generally going full Oprah cash & prizes for Donald Trump…
People toss out jargon about “obeying in advance.” But there’s a much more immediate issue here. CBS still has a news division, I think. If they’re making clear they’re this desperate to give Trump cash and prizes, particularly with their news division, everyone should be on notice that they’re going to be looking for opportunities to stick it to Democrats as a way to grease the skids for their merger deal. They’re saying it out loud. There’s no other way to interpret it.
Putin 'destroying' Russia by not making Ukraine deal: Trump
He makes it sound like a bad thing.
Trump Pardons 1,500 for Capitol Attack
Donald Trump said on Monday that he was issuing roughly 1,500 pardons and commuting the sentences of six of his supporters in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when thousands of them stormed the building amid his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.
The U.S. Needs Soldiers, Not Warriors
Pete Hegseth has vowed to bring a warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. It’s a terrible idea.
If you go back and read some of the debates in Congress leading up to the 14th, you will find that the phrase “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” was added specificically to exclude the children of diplomats. In the debates, members of Congress pointed out that even “Chinese and Hottentots” born here could become citizens at birth if the 14th was ratified. Senators fully understood that such children would be citizens at birth. They argued back and forth among themselves. BUT THEY PASSED IT ANYWAY, even though they knew they knew they were establishing birthright citizenship. And states then ratified the 14th knowing full well that it included birthright citizenship. Don’t conservatives love to praise the “original intent” of the framers of the Constitution?
Donald Trump’s biggest campaign promise was to govern as a lawless authoritarian, and on his first day of office he showed everyone that he intends to keep that promise.
We don’t know yet – we won’t know for a while – the extent to which he will succeed. When it comes to specific policies, I want to echo what I’ve heard a bunch of other people say: Just because Trump and his people say that something is happening through executive action doesn’t mean it’s really going to happen. Some of it will happen, but some will be challenged inside and outside of the administration, and some of it will turn out to be little more than hand-waving to begin with. Lots of steps exist between saying that there will be an action and eventually enacting new policy.
Trump’s pardons of insurrectionists, however, are unfortunately as close to self-enforcing as anything a president ever does. And it’s really the hallmark decision he made on Day One, putting him solidly on the side of treason to the Constitution that he had just sworn an oath to uphold. But it’s not just the pardons; many of his executive actions are simply lawless, from citizenship to TikTok and more.
How Musk Helped Eject Ramaswamy
Elon Musk has already achieved his first cut at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency: his co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy.
Musk, the tech tycoon and Donald Trump confidant, made it known that he wanted Ramaswamy out of DOGE in recent days… An ill-received holiday rant on X by Ramaswamy about H-1B visas apparently hastened his demise.
Just 69 days after Trump announced the team, Ramaswamy is now leaving DOGE and planning to announce a run for Ohio governor next week. Musk’s ability to ice out Ramaswamy, who for a variety of reasons had irked some Republicans in Trump’s circle, is the latest sign of his influence in the incoming administration. And it presages an encore of all of the infighting that marked Trump’s first term.
Ukraine risks being ‘Trump’s Vietnam,’ says Steve Bannon
Trump’s former chief strategist fears his old boss won’t make a clean break and stop military aid to Kyiv.
