Source: CounterPunch
by Phil Mattera

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk keep claiming that their scorched-earth approach to remaking the federal government is made necessary by the prevalence of fraud and waste. Musk’s DOGE attack-squad tabulates its progress on a Wall of Receipts that currently purports to have saved Uncle Sam $65 billion. That number appears to have been plucked out of thin air. The savings for the 2,300 individual contracts listed on the site add up to only $9.6 billion, and even that amount is shaky. For example, the single biggest savings, $1.9 billion, is attached to a Treasury Department contract that is reported to have ended during the Biden Administration. DOGE gives no details of any fraud it may have found in the contracts. That is not surprising, since it is impossible to have done a careful examination of that many contracts in such a short amount of time.” (03/04/25)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/04/the-doge-charade/

Source: The American Conservative
by Trita Parsi

“Punishing Iran was not on Donald Trump’s mind when he entered the White House in January. Rather, he had gone out of his way to declare his desire for a deal by avoiding insulting rhetoric, disavowing regime change and declaring nuclear weapons as his only red line. Similar signals came from Iran. Direct talks with Trump was Tehran’s new line. Yet this unique window of opportunity is closing fast, mainly because Trump isn’t paying attention. Iran policy is once again falling into the hands of the neocons who sabotaged Trump’s hope to reach a deal with Iran during his first term — with war lurking around the corner.” [editor’s note: Trump entered his first term with a deal — a really GOOD deal — and broke that deal for “maximum pressure.” That was him, not “the neocons” – TLK] (03/04/25)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trumps-narrow-iran-window-is-closing/

Source: Persuasion
by Joseph Heath

“The efforts of the Trump administration to purge DEI (‘diversity, equity and inclusion’) programs from the federal government bureaucracy have revealed an enormous amount of confusion about what DEI actually is (or was). In part this is due to the way it was sold by its practitioners, who often presented it as a straightforward extension of the ideas and principles that animated the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In reality, many of their claims were a lot more controversial. If there is any hope for resisting the full-fledged assault that is taking place, it should begin with a re-examination of these claims, with an eye to producing a more defensible body of doctrine.” (03/04/25)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-five-dogmas-of-dei

Source: Garrison Center
by Michael D Swaine

“Only one month in, the foreign policy moves of the Trump Administration in Europe, the Middle East, and North America indicate that radical, tumultuous change, marked most notably by major reversals in long-standing U.S. stances, could be the norm over at least the next four years. Following Trump’s threats to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland and absorb Canada, along with his apparent support for Russia over Ukraine and his bizarre offer to turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East by removing the Palestinian population, one might ask what is in store for Asia, and China in particular. Thus far, Trump has said relatively little about the region other than to predictably threaten tariffs against China and others while offering the prospect of welcoming some forms of Chinese investment into the United States and dissing Taiwan. However, this is unlikely to remain the case.” (03/04/25)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-china-policy/

Source: Common Dreams
by Steven Harper

“‘This is going to be great television.’ But it wasn’t great. It was tragic. U.S. President Donald Trump’s comment at the conclusion of his unprecedented public outburst directed toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked a milestone in a momentous week: Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda became ‘America Alone … with Russia.’ Trump and Vice President JD Vance shouted at Zelenskyy, a beleaguered wartime leader [sic] struggling to defend his democratic [sic] nation against Russia’s invasion. They scolded him for not thanking Trump, who slowed to a trickle the flow of American weapons to Ukraine. In rejecting Trump’s request, Zelenskyy joined Trump’s list of ‘enemies.’ To get even, Trump is now helping Russia negotiate what it could not achieve after three years on the battlefield: the conquest of Ukraine.” (03/04/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-vance-putin