Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• This Is the Land of Wolves Now: Masked agents snatching people off the street. Government officials using caged prisoners for propaganda videos. We are the villains. (The Bulwark)
• The Scammer’s Manual: How to Launder Money and Get Away With It: Documents and insiders reveal how one of the world’s major money laundering networks operates. (New York Times)
• IRS Predicts DOGE Lost Half a Trillion Dollars for the USA. IRS’ internal projections estimate that the DOGE-driven disruptions to the IRS since the inauguration are on track to have reduced tax receipts by more than $500 billion by April 15th (Talking Points Memo). see also Tax revenue could drop by 10 percent amid turmoil at IRS: Staff cuts and disruptions related to the U.S. DOGE Service have officials bracing for a sharp loss of revenue. (Washington Post)
• How a Global Online Network of White Supremacists Groomed a Teen to Kill: Neo-Nazi influencers on the social media platform Telegram created a network of chats and channels where they stoked racist, antisemitic and homophobic hate. The influencers, known as the Terrorgram Collective, targeted a teen in Slovakia and groomed him for three years to kill. Juraj Krajčík subscribed to at least 49 extremist Telegram chats and channels, many of them nodes in the Terrorgram network, before he killed two people at an LGBTQ+ bar. (ProPublica)
• We Mapped DOGE’s Silicon Valley and Corporate Connections: If Elon Musk is America’s CEO, DOGE is the Silicon Valley executive branch. (Wired)
• Delete your DNA from 23andMe right now: The genetic information company declared bankruptcy on Sunday, and California’s attorney general has issued a privacy “consumer alert.” (Washington Post)
• In His Second Term, Trump Fuels a ‘Machinery’ of Misinformation: President Trump’s first four years in the White House were filled with falsehoods. Now he and those around him are using false claims to justify their policy changes. (New York Times)
• The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling. (The Atlantic) see also Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal: The administration has downplayed the importance of the text messages inadvertently sent to The Atlantic’s editor in chief. (The Atlantic) see also American Foreign Policy Is Being Run by the Dumbest Motherfuckers Alive: The fuckwittery on display right now by Trump’s foreign policy team boggles the mind. (Note: That is the actual headline and not my editorializing). (Drezner’s World)
• The Global Glacier Casualty List: Since the year 2000, global warming has led to the disappearance of thousands of glaciers across the world. At first, many of these glaciers were small. But now we are seeing larger glaciers melting, many with vital cultural, economic and environmental importance to human communities. The Global Glacier Casualty List exists to remember their names and tell their stories. (Glacier Casualty)
• Why DOGE is struggling to find fraud in Social Security: Claims of massive problems by Elon Musk and President Trump are at odds with the agency’s audits and reports.(Washington Post) see also Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down: A flood of cuts led by Elon Musk has sent the agency into chaos as a new commissioner prepares to take charge (Washington Post)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Michael Lewis, author of MoneyBall, The Big Short, Liar’s Poker, and many others. His new book is Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service.
Trade War Retaliation Will Hit Trump Voters Hardest
Source: New York Times
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