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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: When the presidency is all kayfabe (except for the destruction) [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-08
Catherine Rampell/Washington Post:
The past two weeks have been fraught with international emergencies of the president’s own making — either problems that he pretends already plague us, or those he manifests into existence. This is the best way to understand his trade-war brinkmanship with Canada and Mexico.
Donald Trump has made a habit of ginning up crises and then declaring victory when he “solves” them. We in the media must stop giving this arsonist credit for his firefighting skills.
New in court: A DC judge said he will temporarily bar the Trump admin from placing 2200 USAID workers on paid leave as of tonight pending full briefing on legal issues in play, TBD if he'll restore status of 500 employees already placed on leave
POLITICO:
District Judge John Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said that the groups failed to properly show the standing necessary to win the temporary restraining order they sought against the Department of Government Efficiency, while expressing sympathy for their concerns that the Musk-led effort presents privacy risks.
Jennifer Bendery/HuffPost:
“As a fellow Republican, I urge you to consider the risks to national security, the integrity of the Bureau, and the safety of the American people before allowing this nomination to proceed unchecked,” Webster said Tuesday to Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over Patel’s nomination.
In an unusually direct appeal, William Webster, a Republican and former director of both the CIA and the FBI, this week sent a scathing letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), urging him to remember his decades-long legacy of strengthening the FBI and to stop Kash Patel from being confirmed as the agency’s chief.
“After all the hard work that you’ve done over your career, to allow it to be destroyed on your watch would not be a legacy I would want,” warned William Webster.
NOTUS:
Plenty of Republicans have resisted voting for debt limit raises in the past, meaning Democrats have had to pick up the GOP’s slack. The result is that, typically, debt ceiling bills are bipartisan. The problem is that the whole point of the reconciliation bill is that it isn’t bipartisan.
As Mike Johnson tries to get fiscal hawks onboard with his reconciliation bill, the speaker is now planning on including a once-unthinkable line item: a debt ceiling hike.
“I think, and we think, that it should be in reconciliation,” former House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry told NOTUS on Friday. “Why would we deal with the Democrats on the debt ceiling?”
Why the Freedom Caucus Wants the Debt Limit in Reconciliation — And Why It May Tank the Bill
I have not become completely numb; I can still be shocked by some depths of depraved sadism inflicted by this collection of despicable thugs, giggling sociopaths, and dead-eyed apparatchiks. May their days be short and frustrated.
Ars Technica:
National Institutes of Health radically cuts support to universities
Sudden and drastic change will make it hard for researchers to keep the lights on.
Grants paid by the federal government have two components. One covers the direct costs of performing the research, paying for salaries, equipment, and consumables like chemicals or enzymes. But the government also pays what are called indirect costs. These go to the universities and research institutes, covering the costs of providing and maintaining the lab space, heat and electricity, administrative and HR functions, and more.
These indirect costs are negotiated with each research institution and average close to 30 percent of the amount awarded for the research. Some institutions see indirect rates as high as half the value of the grant.
On Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that negotiated rates were ending. Every existing grant, and all those funded in the future, will see the indirect cost rate set to just 15 percent. With no warning and no time to adjust to the change in policy, this will prove catastrophic for the budget of nearly every biomedical research institution.
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