The Bucks Stop Here

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that a guy famous for not paying his bills is now leading an administration that just stopped paying theirs. Project 2025 is not only here, the pace of the deployment is more like Projectile 2025. "President Donald Trump's White House ordered a pause in all federal grants and loans starting on Tuesday, a sweeping decision that could disrupt education, health care and poverty programs, housing assistance, disaster relief and a host of other initiatives that depend on trillions of federal dollars. The freeze followed Trump's suspension of foreign aid last week, a move that began cutting off the supply of lifesaving medicines on Tuesday to countries around the world that depend on U.S. development assistance." Trump funding freeze could disrupt education, housing, disaster aid. It basically disrupts everything, and it wrests control over spending matters from Congress. "The U.S. Constitution gives Congress control over spending matters, but Trump said during his campaign that he believes the president has the power to withhold money for programs he dislikes. His nominee for White House budget director, Russell Vought, who has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, headed a think tank that has argued Congress cannot require a president to spend money."

+ "Democratic attorneys general from states including New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are moving to keep funds flowing to state governments and cities." NYT (Gift Article): States Will Sue Trump to Stop Federal Grant Freeze. Unpaid bills. Endless lawsuits. A deluge of norm busting news. Eight days in and we're fully living in Trump's America.

+ The domestic freeze follows the international aid freeze. A US shutdown on foreign aid is hitting from Africa to Asia to Ukraine. Here’s how. "U.S-funded aid programs around the world have begun firing staff and shutting down or preparing to stop their operations."

+ "Appointments are being canceled, and patients are being turned away from clinics, according to people with knowledge of the situation who feared retribution if they spoke publicly. Many people with H.I.V. are facing abrupt interruptions to their treatment." NYT (Gift Article): Trump Administration Halts H.I.V. Drug Distribution in Poor Countries.

+ "It’s hard to think through everything affected. Already the halt to USAID budgets has cut off funding for the prison guards holding 9,500 ISIS prisoners in northeastern Syria, according to Syria expert Charles Lister. Cancer research, major parts of every state’s budget, the grants that keep the local daycare center running. This hits basically everything. The best way to understand this is that it is essentially a unilateral government shutdown on steroids. Even government shutdowns distinguish between essential and inessential government activities. This doesn’t." Some good analysis from Josh Marshall: Trump Sparks Constitutional Crisis, Seizing Budget Authority from Congress.

+ The architect of Project 2025, Russell Vought, has been projecting this stuff for years, along with the ways the government should respond when folks don't fall in line. ProPublica: 'Put Them in Trauma': Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda. (All of this may not be what the average voter was thinking about at the polls in November. But this is how America voted and now we're paying the piper. Even if, as of today, he's not paying us.)

2

Tried and Tested

"One morning in Baltimore last October, a 26-year-old named Alexander Laurenson strode into a small white room to have his arm preyed upon by mosquitoes. As requested, he had not showered the night before to make his skin more attractive to the pests, drawn as they are to body odor. The mosquitoes, for their part, had been infected with malaria, a disease that kills over 600,000 people every year." NYT (Gift Article): Would You Get Sick in the Name of Science? (Before you answer...) "A week on, Mr. Laurenson felt fine. But then, 11 days out, a headache set in. So did nausea. Then, he vomited." (Sounds like he's training to be a news curator.)

3

Deep Dish

"Washington was confident that it was ahead and wanted to keep it that way. So the Biden administration ramped up restrictions banning the export of advanced chips and technology to China. That's why DeepSeek's launch has astonished Silicon Valley and the world. The firm says its powerful model is far cheaper than the billions US firms have spent on AI." The market has recovered a bit from yesterday's DeepSeek AI shock to the system. American AI researchers are still rolling in the deep. BBC: DeepSeek: How China's 'AI heroes' overcame US curbs to stun Silicon Valley.

+ The Guardian: We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan.

+ Of course, the risk of getting false or no information about certain subjects has caused American users to avoid the app. Oh, wait... DeepSeek AI underscores consumers’ willingness to embrace Chinese tech.

4

Local Rag Gag

"Not only do these hundreds of newsletters share the same exact seven testimonials, they also share the same branding, the same copy on their about pages, and the same stated mission: 'to make local news more accessible and highlight extraordinary people in our community.'" Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting 'small town America.' "Good Daily, which operates in 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S., is run by one person."

5

Extra, Extra

Threat Level Orange: One thing we can say about Trump's acts of revenge and associated scare tactics: They're working. WaPo(Gift Article): Trump’s perceived enemies brace for retribution with plans, dark humor.

+ Bobby Lobby: "I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator." Caroline Kennedy warns senators of ‘predator’ RFK Jr. in searing letter. (In the current Senate, this might make him a more attractive nominee.)

+ Filling a Void Where Prohibited: A defiant Hamas displays its authority in Gaza, posing a challenge to Netanyahu. "'Each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back, Hamas militants regroup and re-emerge, because there’s nothing else to fill the void,' former Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this month."

+ Pardoner in Crime: "An Indiana man who was pardoned by US President Donald Trump over the US Capitol riot was killed by police during a traffic stop days later ... This is not the first case of a 6 January rioter facing trouble with the law following their pardon. Another of the group, Daniel Bell of Florida, was rearrested on federal gun charges last week."

+ Bookstore Goes Electric: "When Andy Hunter started Bookshop in 2020, his goal was to build an online bookstore that served as an indie alternative to Amazon. Five years later, more than 2,200 independent bookstores sell books through the site, which has generated more than $35 million in profit for participating stores. But Bookshop didn’t sell e-books, leaving member stores shut out of a lucrative format." Until now. Indie Bookstores Will Soon Be Able to Sell E-Books to Customers.

+ Gulf War: Google says it will change Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’ in Maps app after government updates. "Google added that the name Gulf of Mexico will remain displayed for users in Mexico. Users in other countries will see both names, the company said."

6

Bottom of the News

"I don’t have technology. I only have a satellite dish on my house. So I’ve seen ‘Severance’ on DVDs that they’re good enough to send me. I don’t have a cell phone. I’ve never emailed or, what do you call it, Twittered." Christopher Walken: ‘I Don’t Have a Cell Phone. I’ve Never Emailed’ and Can Only Watch TV Using a ‘Satellite Dish on My House’. (No wonder he needed more cowbell...)

+ No more roommates for Mona Lisa: The painting is getting its own gallery the Louvre.