Source: Washington Post
by Philip Bump

“Myriad claims made by Musk and his team have been shown to be false. (Journalist Marcy Wheeler is keeping a running list.) The most notable example of this pattern was that a site purportedly articulating ‘savings’ effected by Musk’s team was riddled with errors, overstating some savings by billions of dollars and claiming as ‘savings’ money that had already been spent. There has been no demonstrated evidence of fraud, except when using the term ‘fraud’ or ‘waste’ in the way that was always intended: to describe spending that doesn’t comport with how the political right wants to spend federal money.” (03/03/25)

https://archive.is/Oj7NS

Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by Jianlu Bi

“The meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Trump at the White House ‘devolved into a shouting match’ in the Oval Office. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance criticized Zelenskyy’s approach, with Trump accusing him of ‘gambling with World War III.’ Meanwhile, Zelenskyy voiced concerns that deals with Russia would not be kept and that Ukraine needed stronger security guarantees. The recent clash between the two wasn’t merely a diplomatic hiccup; it was a stark illustration of the West’s eroding credibility and the precarious position in which Ukraine finds itself. The fallout from this meeting reverberates far beyond the walls of the Oval Office, exposing deep fissures and eliciting widespread repercussions that shake the very foundations of the global order.” [editor’s note: Yet another distortion of what actually happened there – SAT] (03/03/25)

https://fpif.org/a-diplomatic-debacle-when-the-wests-facade-crumbles/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Iain Murray

“If DOGE and agency heads succeed in their mission, it will be nothing less than the greatest deregulatory achievement seen in the modern world.” (03/03/25)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/doge-gets-serious-in-its-war-on-the-administrative-state/

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Anatol Lieven

“Full details are yet to emerge of the ‘peace plan’ that the UK, EU and Ukrainian leaders worked out in London on Sunday, and are to present to the Trump administration. But from what they have said so far, while one part is necessary and even essential, another is obstructive and potentially disastrous.” (03/03/25)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/uk-france-ukraine-meeting/

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“First, Trump fires the holdover director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a radically anti-business agency. He appoints the new treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, as acting director. Bessent orders the agency to stop everything – ‘rulemaking, communications, litigation,’ Bloomberg Law reported. ‘A source inside the bureau who asked to remain anonymous said the order appeared to shut down the CFPB altogether, for the time being.’ So far, so good.” (03/03/25)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/03/03/how-to-kill-a-bureau/

Source: Common Dreams
by Sanford F Schram

“In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, the world’s richest person Elon Musk late last week called Social Security ‘the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time’ It was yet another ‘pot calling the kettle black’ moment in the run-on sentence called Trumpism. I say run-on sentence because it is important to highlight Trumpism as featuring a nefarious discourse self-consciously deployed by Donald Trump and his acolytes to normalize their extremism. Trumpism as a discourse obfuscates so as to legitimate what has become its extremist threat to the existing political system, the rule of law and U.S. Constitution. It is a distinctive way of speaking that facilitates highly questionable action. We see this repeatedly in the Trump era. Trumpism as a discourse most prominently features three verbal maneuvers: gaslighting, coopting, and boomeranging.” [editor’s note: Well, at least this pundit considers the label correct, even though for the wrong reasons – SAT] (03/03/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/musk-ponzi-scheme-social-security