https://www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-daniel-penny-hired-at-andreessen-horowitz

«“He will learn the business of investing and he will work to support our portfolio companies,” wrote Ulevitch in a note sent to all employees this afternoon.»

“He will LEARN?” What is his skill set now? (It’s clearly not subduing a person in a non-lethal manner.) Did they just hire an unqualified person because of their political agenda?

And, Free Press: his current skill set is reporting you could have included in your story.

Wikipedia says: «He was honorably discharged and returned to New York, reportedly considering higher education and other career paths before the 2023 incident.»

So: no skills. Apart from he learned doing whatever he did in the Marines. Maybe “working the system”?

https://prospect.org/justice/2025-02-04-illegal-executive-spending-decisions-happening-now/

Honestly, this just feels like impeachment-level stuff.

https://www.rawstory.com/musk-trump-2671092992/

«“My heart is with the people out on the street outside USAID, but my head tells me: ‘Man, Trump will be well satisfied to have this fight,’” former Obama adviser David Axelrod told Politico. “When you talk about cuts, the first thing people say is: Cut foreign aid.”

…

MAGA world, meanwhile, is thrilled to see Democratic lawmakers outraged over the foreign aid issue, Politico wrote in their report, which noted that many in Trump’s orbit believe them to be “wasting political capital defending an agency that they believe the public doesn’t give a rip about. Musk himself spent the following 24 hours posting videos of Democrats protesting the move.”»

In addition to the 51% of the American people who couldn’t care less about brown people suffering in parts of the world they never heard of, I believe there’s a chunk of folks on the left who are focused exclusively on domestic issues.

And I wonder if we’ll ever know how many people who were super-concerned about Gaza just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Harris.

[Edit: of course, three days from now, at the pace we’re going, USAID will be a distant blip in the rear-view mirror and nobody (other than those directly affected) will remember the rage other than the lawyers involved.]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pam-bondi-confirmed-as-attorney-general/

Hmmm I thought Schatz put a hold on everybody.

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-02-03-democrats-plans-to-fight-musk/

«The job of politicians from the party that is out of power is to make the political argument for why their party should be returned to power. That means highlighting the misdeeds, mistakes and malfeasance of the other party. It means providing clear statements about the rules, norms and processes that were violated so that the press can report on them from experts whose job it is to understand legislation and limits on power.

Note also that politicians normally do not themselves file lawsuits unless they were personally injured in some way. And even then there are many reasons why lawsuits are best left to other litigants, such as unions, state attorneys general or nonprofits, who have the resources and time to bring complex suits with seasoned lawyers.

Some political responses may help lead to other types of responses, but that is not their primary end. The primary goal of a political response is to make the political case. And that’s it.

So it will help us and our cause to stop rolling our eyes when [emphasis mine — John.], say, a politician writes a stern letter to a Trump official demanding that the administration cease its illegal activity. That is actually what our senators and representatives are supposed to do. That is how they set the record and inform the press and through them the larger public. As discussed above, politicians don’t bring lawsuits. They usually don’t lead street protests. And the more experienced among them don’t waste political capital on performative stunts that don’t actually fix anything.

That said, those letters and statements, which help establish the public record, are a vital resource. They are cited in lawsuits, often as evidence that the administration was on notice of its illegal actions. They point investigative journalists toward more reporting. And they are an important expenditure of political capital, signaling the priorities of our representatives.»

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/is-somebody-doing-something?r=bwmg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true

«We can donate to the nonprofits who are litigating constitutional rights on our behalf.»

The whole thing is worth reading. Several good links.

«Did Trump plan this assault on everyone’s personal information or is he too weak and ineffective to stop this bad actor from coming in? WHICH IS IT?»

https://www.wonkette.com/p/an-open-letter-to-the-majority-of

Trump has always been clueless. CLUE. LESS. He has never had intention, other than that of a child, and I’ve always disliked headlines that imply intention. He is a weak person around whom others have collected, like flies on shit.

The New York Times may prefer to refer to his “chaotic management style”, but that’s not what it is. It’s just weakness and the inattention of an easily-distracted child.

He’s not so much a President as a hole in the air. Other people are driving.

So… I sometimes use https://5calls.org to call my representatives. I’ve never had a problem with it, it’s great. (Usually I get voicemail, but a couple of times I’ve gotten a polite aide of some sort.)

Today, I’m trying to call, because [gestures around], and my representivates’ phone numbers are extremely slow to come up, if they ever do at all. I’m wondering if the current shenanigans are resulting in an abnormally large number of people trying to do what I’m doing and 5calls is just under load. (Or maybe there’s a DDOS attack going on? That would be interesting.)

…

Ok, I finally got some numbers to come up by clicking on another issue, and I called, and, wow, their voicemail systems sound like they’re underwater (burble burble burble…). I get the feeling the call volume is through the roof today.

You can add to it. 🙂

«There is a subreddit for federal employees where  one of the top posts reads: “This non ‘buyout’ really seems to have backfired. I’ll be honest, before that email went out, I was looking for any way to get out of this fresh hell. But now I am fired up to make these goons as frustrated as possible.” As I write this, it’s been upvoted more than 39,000 times and civil servant after civil servant is echoing the initial sentiment.»

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-trump-column-read.html?unlocked_article_code=1.t04.9UAD.wQ7-EAz_C7dz&smid=url-share (gift)