Wednesday News: “This Is So Much Worse Than Last Time”; Trump Trashes US AID, Government in General; Sen. Tim Kaine Calls Trump’s Gaza Plan “Deranged” and “Nuts”; “It’s a War. Do Democrats Get That?”; “Musk Has Broken the Constitutional Order”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, February 5. With regard to Trump’s insane/deranged, illegal plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip – obviously, an idea that should be rejected by everyone, as it would be a massive war crime! – this is why it was essential during the campaign for everyone to vote for Kamala Harris, even if they were (justifiably) angry and upset about the situation in Gaza, because THIS was always going to be the result – it was glaringly obvious that Trump would be much, much worse than Kamala Harris if you care about the Palestinians, Arab or Muslim Americans, whatever. Not even close, really. Plus, Trump is a disaster on everything else, so this should have been a no-brainer to vote in droves for Kamala Harris, not to sit home or vote for Jill Stein or Trump. Now, it’s going to be a four-year (at least!) disaster for ALL OF US. Greeeaaaat.

• Climate change target of 2C is ‘dead’, says renowned climate scientist (“Prof James Hansen says pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, though other scientists disagree”)
• Temperatures at north pole 20C above average and beyond ice melting point (“Scientists say unusually mild temperatures linked to low-pressure system over Iceland directing strong flow of warm air towards north pole”)
• Fossil fuel subsidies now more than $A2 trillion just in G7 countries (Totally nuts – fossil fuels not only shouldn’t receive ANY subsidies, they should have to pay for the pollution, health damage, etc. they cause!)
• Zelensky calls for Tucker Carlson to ‘stop licking’ Putin’s ‘a**’ after former Fox host labels Ukrainian president a ‘dictator’
• How Trump Gutted America’s $40 Billion Aid Agency in Two Weeks
• State Department moving to evacuate USAID staff worldwide: Sources
• USAID upheaval is paralyzing global delivery of food and medicine
• USAID workers placed on administrative leave ‘until further notice’ (That’s illegal for sure. Now we need Congressional Republicans to find some semblance of backbones…)
• USPS Halts All Packages From China, Sending the Ecommerce Industry Into Chaos
• ‘Deranged’ and ‘problematic’: Bipartisan lawmakers bash Trump’s Gaza proposal (“‘I don’t know where this came from, but I can tell you … that would not get many expressions of support from Democrats or Republicans up here,’ said Kaine, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.”)
• Trump proposes U.S. ‘take over’ Gaza, permanent displacement of residents
• Trump’s plan to ‘take over’ Gaza Strip confuses GOP lawmakers
• Trump suggests displaced Palestinians in Gaza be ‘permanently’ resettled outside war-torn territory (So yeah, our president is: a) an imbecile; b) a far-right extremist; c) a lunatic. Great…)
• Behind the Curtain: Trump’s wild Middle East vision
• From the river to the sea, Palestine will be … abolished?
• Trump’s suggestion the US ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip is rejected by allies and adversaries alike (BTW, Netanyahu can f*** himself as well.)
• Trump’s Gaza plan will be seen as flying in face of international law
• Trump’s Gaza ‘Riviera’ plan is the most outlandish idea in the history of US Middle East peacemaking (Seriously, can we all just agree that Trump is completely insane and has ZERO business being president???)
• Trump’s declaration US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip sparks global condemnation
• Trump Campaigned on Ending Foreign Entanglements. Now He Wants to Own Gaza. (Anyone who believed Trump was some sort of pacifist or whatever is too dumb for words.)
• Donald Trump’s toxic remarks on Gaza reveal lack of joined-up thinking (“US president has already caused trouble abroad and at home with incoherent ideas about Middle East politics”)
• Welcome to Trumpworld, where the developer-in-chief sees dollar signs in the rubble of Gaza (“In the White House’s venerable East Room, it became clear that Trump 2.0 is entering a dangerously expansionist phase”)
• DOD drafting plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria after recent Trump comments (That would be really bad.)
• Marco Rubio Received a Lunatic Offer to Outsource U.S. Citizens to Prison in El Salvador (“The secretary of state called the proposal, which is undoubtedly illegal, an ‘act of extraordinary friendship.'” Why did any Democrat vote to confirm Marco Rubio as Secretary of State? Yes, he was going to be confirmed, but that’s no reason to lend him any legitimacy.)
• Hundreds of women raped and burned to death after Goma prison set on fire (“Atrocity follows escape of thousands of male inmates amid chaos as Rwandan-backed M23 rebels seize eastern DRC city” Horrific.)
• At least four of Trump’s anti-immigrant executive orders are more extreme than Project 2025’s proposals
• “Nobody Knows What’s Coming Next”: Will Donald Trump Be Able to Use the Military Against Immigrants—and US Citizens? (“Follow orders—or disobey? Members of the US armed forces may soon face a Hobson’s choice.” Definitely disobey illegal orders.)
• To Stop The Coup, We Must Be Clear About The Truth: Two Plus Two Equals Four (“The parallel to Orwell’s warning becomes even clearer when we examine how this denial works. It’s not just about specific lies—it’s about creating a system where truth itself becomes impossible to maintain. When every violation of constitutional governance is treated as a separate incident, when each breach of democratic norms is analyzed in isolation, we lose the ability to see the pattern that makes the reality clear: This is a coordinated effort to dismantle constitutional democracy itself.”)
• Anne Applebaum: Outside the Rule of Law (“If the Chinese hacked the U.S. government the way private citizen Elon has, it would be a major act of cyber warfare. And since Elon is a government contractor, he’s now in a position to make policy calls that benefit his own companies and hurt his competitors—following the Russian oligarch model. We are in a completely lawless realm, and this is likely to continue until he is stopped. Meanwhile, government employees are being forced to choose between conforming or protecting the public. Plus, Elon is also sabotaging America’s soft power and influence in Africa while he and the other tech overlords plot how to derail Europe’s effort to regulate them.”)
• Trump 2.0: The most damaging first two weeks in presidential history
• Elon Musk Is Putting the Entire Government “Into the Wood Chipper” (“The unelected tech billionaire is dismantling multiple government agencies—and there’s seemingly no one capable of stopping him.”)
• Elon Musk has your Social Security number. It’s as scary as it sounds. (“There is no legitimate reason for the ‘DOGE’ to have access to the federal payment system.”)
• ‘Things Are Going to Get Intense:’ How a Musk Ally Plans to Push AI on the Government
• Elon Musk’s Power Grab Is Lawless, Dangerous, and—Yes—a Coup
• Breaking the Law (“Just weeks in, the Trump administration has violated rules, laws, and the Constitution.”)
• Musk’s USAID Shutdown: ‘This Is What the Beginning of Dictatorship Looks Like’
• Rep. Jamie Raskin demands details on U.S. citizens caught up in ICE enforcement
• The Crimes of Jan. 6 Will Be Buried Under the Rubble of the Careers of People Who Just Followed the Law (“Welcome to the final chapter of You vs. Your Lying Eyes.”)
• Trump and Musk demand termination of federal office leases through General Services Administration
• How the world’s richest man laid waste to the US government (“Elon Musk has achieved astonishing power in Trump’s administration – and spent the weekend wielding it”)
• Trump Brazenly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab
• FBI turns over names of 5,000 employees who worked on January 6 cases to Trump Justice Department, as agents sue
• This Is So Much Worse Than Last Time (“Why Democrats and the media are struggling to capture the insanity—and danger—of the new Trump administration.” Some of us – raises hand! – saw this coming. Why are so many people so clueless???)
• Do We Even Know What’s Happening To The Federal Government?
• It’s a War. Do Democrats Get That? (“Trump and Musk have have initiated an all-out battle against the US government, the rule of law, and decency. Where’s the opposition?”)
• What Happened to the Trump Resistance? (“If the President’s first term was colored with protests and hashtags, his second has so far been characterized by a lack of dissidence.” Really, really bad.)
• A Legal Counteroffensive to Beat Back Trump’s Government Purges
• Trump Advisers Stopped Musk From Hiring a Noncitizen at DOGE
• Democrats threaten to obstruct Trump’s agenda over Musk’s DOGE efforts
• Democrats join protest against Musk’s ‘hostile takeover’ of federal payment systems (Republicans are cool with Trump destroying our government, dismantling our democracy, etc.)
• Treasury Defends Musk Team’s Access to Federal Payment System
• Treasury says Musk’s DOGE has not rejected payments in first attempt to clarify access granted to critical system
• Elon Musk Has Broken the Constitutional Order (“The tech oligarch has unleashed his slow-rolling coup d’etat across the federal government, and it’s not clear anything can prevent a total takeover.”)
• Musk Cronies Dive Into Treasury Dept Payments Code Base (WILDLY unacceptable – and definitely criminal. Any regular person doing this would have been arrested by now and be in DEEP legal trouble.)
• Who can police a president unwilling to abide by the law?
• Negotiations stall ahead of shutdown deadline as Democrats slam Trump for subverting spending laws
• Federal health workers terrified after ‘DEI’ website publishes list of ‘targets’ (This is WILDLY unacceptable.)
• The CIA Is About to Get a Trump Makeover
• CIA offers buyouts to entire workforce to align with Trump priorities, sources say (Really, really bad.)
• Doge staffers enter Noaa headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats
• Science funding agency threatened with mass layoffs (Also insane and illegal.)
• RFK Jr., Gabbard on Glide Path to Confirmation After White House Lobbying (We are really, REALLY f’ed at this point. And yet we still have Democratic Senators voting to confirm Trump nominees???)
• Senate confirms Pam Bondi to lead Justice Department (She’s a disaster.)
• 
  Trump’s pick for key national security position linked to far-right figures (“Questions linger for director of counterintelligence nominee, Joe Kent, over ties to white nationalists and employment with shadowy military contractor”)
• “I and any other government employee – and any other hacker for that matter – would go to jail if caught for this activity, yet Musk and company are doing it in the open.”
• Trump is trying to throttle the free press — and U.S. moguls are going along with it
• EXCLUSIVE: Daniel Penny Gets Hired by Andreessen Horowitz (Wuuuut?)
• Sen. Tim Kaine Leads 37 Senators in Raising Alarm Over Trump Administration Chaos at Critical National Security Agencies (“We are deeply concerned by reports of not only growing chaos and dysfunction at the Department of State, but the Administration’s brazen and illegal attempts to destroy [US AID].”)
• ‘It’s illegal’ to shut down USAID: Sen. Tim Kaine
• ‘Don’t give up’: Sen. Tim Kaine’s message to federal workers afraid for their jobs
• Kaine among 24 Senate Dems voting to confirm election-denier to head the VA (“The fascist oligarchy isn’t playing by the rules as it tries to dismantle our democracy, and expects the loyal opposition to do what it does – I had it explained to me today that the reason Democrats don’t block confirmations and legislation like Republicans did in the Obama and Biden years is because our side wants to maintain and preserve our system of government. The oligarchs are relying on our side to continue playing by the rules as they continue their efforts to burn it all to the ground.”)
• Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Colleagues Call for Reinstatement of Inspectors General Illegally Fired by President Trump (“President Trump failed to alert Congress or provide substantive reasoning.”)
• Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Colleagues Call for Reinstatement of Inspectors General Illegally Fired by President Trump (“President Trump failed to alert Congress or provide substantive reasoning.”)
• Video: 100s of Federal Employees at Rep. Suhas Subramanyman (D-VA10)’s Town Hall Monday Evening Say They’re “Angry,” “Seething,” Appalled at What “DOGE” Is Doing, etc.
• Members of Congress holding town halls for concerned federal workers across DC area
• Schapiro: Black Democratic lawmakers grilling Spanberger
• Virginia House and Senate pass flurry of bills at session’s midpoint
• Pope & Schapiro: Halftime in the General Assembly session
• VA Speaker Don Scott Announces Formation of Emergency Committee on the Impacts of Federal Workforce and Funding Reductions (“The committee will hold its organizational meeting no later than May 1, 2025, and is expected to produce a final report with findings and recommendations by December 15, 2025.” Good idea, but try to speed that up, if at all possible? This is an EMERGENCY.)
• Bipartisan contraception coverage bill flies out of Virginia House
• Virginia Senate allows Youngkin school accountability effort to move forward
• Cannabis sales bills clear Virginia legislature, face likely Youngkin veto (“With no legal marketplace, Virginians can grow and possess marijuana, but still can’t buy or sell it.”)
• 7 things to know about where the General Assembly stands at halftime
• License plate reader bill clears the House, but privacy concerns persist
• Tysons casino plan divides Fairfax lawmakers as bill moves forward
• A bill paving the way for a new casino in Fairfax County is moving on with an uncertain future
• It’s time for Virginia legislators to pay more than lip service to social media protections for kids
• Senate Democrats propose budget amendment to legalize skill games
• Commentary: The truth about ‘skill’ games and their operators
• MVP Southgate pipeline asks FERC to approve changes to route and pipe diameter
• Lawmakers endorse distancing VCU president from health system leadership
• Virginia Beach officials considering ideas for future of Virginia MOCA property
• Sweet Briar’s new admissions policy has left some students wondering if they still belong there
• CWG Live updates: Colder today; icy conditions possible tonight, especially north and west (“We could see a wintry mix on Saturday, too, plus a storm chance next week.”)