FAIR: As Constitutional Crises Mount, US Press Sleepwalks Into Autocracy
Instead of appropriately pushing the increasing lawlessness and opacity to the forefront of their reporting, the New York Times and Washington Post largely buried these stories, downplaying their earth-shattering break from democratic norms.
via the Tapestry app.
Heather Cox Richardson: February 3, 2025
I’m going to start tonight by stating the obvious: the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also control the White House and the Supreme Court. If they wanted to get rid of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, they could introduce a bill, debate it, pass it, and send it on to President Trump for his signature. And there would be very little the Democrats could do to stop that change.
But they are not doing that.
Instead, they are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes.
The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical.
Guardian: Trump says US will ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip and ‘level’ it
Trump once again says Gaza is a “demolition site” that is “very dangerous and very precarious”.
He says the Palestinians in Gaza should be moved to a “beautiful area with homes and safety …. so that they can live out their lives in peace and harmony”.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump says.
We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings.
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What?!
CBC: PCs, Liberals both vow to ‘upload’ responsibility of Ottawa’s LRT
The Ontario government would transfer responsibility for Ottawa’s light rail system to provincial agency Metrolinx, according to campaign promises made by Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford and Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie on Tuesday.
Last Updated: 04.Feb.2025 23:55 EST
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