Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by Walden Bello
“I think that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have been misinformed. I don’t disagree with their shutting down USAID, but I think it’s rather small fry. There are much, much bigger fish to fry if you want to really save U.S. government money that is being wasted in programs that are mischievously justified as aid to the poor people of the world. Elon, hear me out: if you walk northwest from your headquarters at the Eisenhower Executive Building along Pennsylvania Avenue, you’ll come after one long block upon two ugly buildings squatting beside each other. One is the World Bank. The other is the International Monetary Fund (IMF).” (02/25/25)
https://fpif.org/the-world-bank-and-imf-await-elon-musk/
Source: Seattle Times
“A new album called ‘Is This What We Want?’ features a stellar list of more than 1,000 musicians — and the sound of silence. With contributions from artists including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Cat Stevens and Damon Albarn, the album was released Tuesday to protest proposed British changes to artificial intelligence laws that artists fear will erode their creative control. … The protest album features recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, to show what they fear will be the fate of creative venues if the plan goes through. The titles of the 12 tracks spell out: ‘The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies.'” (02/25/25)
https://archive.is/NoAJt
Source: Roll Call
“Banking on Blockchain: Ukraine’s First Instant Payments Rail.” (02/24/25)
https://chrt.fm/track/D3F8DG/traffic.megaphone.fm/FISCAL5174614259.mp3?updated=1740402433
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Things looked bad recently for Leland Dudek, an employee of the Social Security Administration. Dudek almost got fired for helping the DOGE team understand how SSA’s systems work so that DOGE could zero in on wasteful or fraudulent payments. … An investigation? Administrative leave? For helping, as an executive-branch employee, the head of the executive branch to find and extirpate waste and fraud? SSA managers may have been confused about whether Donald Trump really is the president. The suspense didn’t last long. Dudek was not fired. Instead, the SSA commissioner was fired and Dudek became acting commissioner.” (02/25/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/02/25/fire-or-promote-the-best/
Source: SFGate
“South Korea’s impeached president defended his martial law decree as a desperate bid to promote public awareness of the danger of the opposition-controlled parliament, and vowed Tuesday to push for political reform if reinstated. President Yoon Suk Yeol made his final statement at the Constitutional Court as it wrapped up oral arguments in his impeachment trial. The court is expected to rule by mid-March on whether to remove Yoon from office or reinstate his presidential powers. The liberal opposition-controlled National Assembly impeached Yoon, a conservative, after his Dec. 3 martial law decree plunged the country into political turmoil, shook its financial markets and hurt its international image. He has been separately arrested and indicted on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived decree. The rebellion charge carries the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted.” (02/25/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/south-korea-s-yoon-defends-his-martial-law-decree-20186711.php
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dennis Kucinich and Elizabeth Kucinich
“The era of unchecked military expansion may be coming to an end, and for the first time in decades, the ability of the defense industry to influence U.S. military policy is being curtailed. Will it happen? We don’t know, but President Trump’s bold proposal to cut Pentagon spending reflects his signature negotiation style – starting with an aggressive position to shift the conversation and force a change in conditions, in this case – scrutiny of military waste. Rather than a rigid policy demand, Trump’s talk of a 50% cut in military spending challenges the entrenched interests of the military-industrial complex, putting pressure on defense contractors to reduce costs, compelling Congress to justify every dollar spent.” (02/25/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/kucinich/2025/02/24/president-trump-wants-to-cut-the-pentagon-budget-in-half-how/
Source: Politico
“A federal judge declined to immediately restore the Associated Press’[s] position in the White House press pool after President Donald Trump ejected the wire service as punishment for refusing to recognize his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America.’ U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, acknowledged at a court hearing Monday that Trump has excluded the organization in recent weeks from the position it has held for over a century in press pools admitted to the Oval Office. … However, McFadden noted that Trump hasn’t stripped AP’s reporters and photographers of their White House press passes or access to White House briefings — the kinds of moves that have prompted court intervention in the past.” (02/24/25)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/24/trump-associated-press-court-hearing-00205852
Source: The Liberty Exchange
“Modern Libertarianism with Brian Doherty.” (02/24/25)
https://shows.acast.com/the-liberty-exchange/episodes/modern-libertarianism-with-brian-doherty
Source: Reason
by Matthew Petti
“The law of supply and demand is the most basic insight in economics. When there’s more of a good available for sale than people who want to buy it, the price goes down, and when more people want to buy the good than is available, the price goes up. As progressives have learned the hard way with housing, there is no magical government intervention to get around this. That law presents a bit of a problem for President Donald Trump’s agenda on oil. On one hand, Trump ran on criticisms of Biden-era inflation, including high gas prices. He also wants to drive down oil prices to pressure Russia. On the other hand, Trump wants to cut off Iranian oil exports in order to ‘bankrupt’ the country and build leverage in negotiations. In other words, he’s trying to both increase and reduce the oil supply at the same time.” (02/24/25)
https://reason.com/2025/02/24/does-trump-want-lower-gas-prices-or-oil-sanctions-on-iran/
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek
“The outrage over $2 billion being handed to a Stacey Abrams-related start-up by the defeated Joe Biden administration is justified. But it is not surprising. Climate spending by the Biden White House was always political. In 2022, President Joe Biden tapped long-time Democrat operative John Podesta to oversee the disbursement of $375 billon to climate-related initiatives – monies that were included in the dishonestly named ‘Inflation Reduction Act.’ Those funds were supposed to be spent on projects that would drive the country towards Democrats’ goal of a 40% reduction in carbon output below 2005 levels by 2030. In reality, the funds set up a gigantic slush fund within the White House, available to Podesta as he set about boosting Democrats’ prospects in 2024.” (02/25/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-gigantic-slush-fund-inside-biden-white-house
