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The phrase Qu'ils mangent de la brioche — which has been roughly translated to Let them eat cake — was likely never actually uttered by Marie Antoinette (unless she came up with it at the age of nine). But the spirit of the phrase does seem to match this American moment as the House looks to pass a spending bill that is most harmful to the poorest people. Well, the phrase almost fits. The administration wants to cut cake, too. RFK Jr. wants to stop people using SNAP benefits to buy sugary foods. But don't worry. The highest earners are still getting a sweet deal. "To help pay for the tax cuts, Trump’s bill will slash the federal budget for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by an estimated 20%, according to the CBO. More than 40 million low-income Americans (12% of the country) use SNAP, formerly known as food stamps." This part of the spending bill looks more like a draconian diet plan. Welcome to the Senate's new version of Ozempic. Instead of weekly shots, you lose weight because you can't afford to eat. And you may need this alternative, because health care is getting cut, too. To add salt to the wound (while you can still afford salt), the cuts that will be dramatic and life-altering for the poorest Americans won't do much to offset the overall cost of the spending bill. NYT (Gift Article): Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package. "Republicans aim to pay for their tax cuts by slashing programs for the poor, including Medicaid and food stamps. The cuts amount to one of the largest retrenchments in the federal safety net in a generation. But the savings they generate only offset a fraction of the total cost of the bill, which is expected to add more than $3 trillion to the federal debt by 2034."
+ "House Speaker Mike Johnson maintains that the changes being considered are an effort to reduce fraud and waste, not a cut to SNAP. It’s hard to see how he can say that with a straight face. They are proposing cutting it—and cutting it deep." Bloomberg (Gift Article): SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too. Cruelty for cruelty's sake is becoming the new normal in a country where the phrase let them eat cakehas become as American as Apple Pie.
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Ticking Time Bomb
As I wrote a couple months ago, for decades, the tick tick ticking of the 60 Minutes stopwatch has become an emblem of trusted, dependable investigative journalism. For the first 133920 minutes of the new Trump administration, the tick tick ticking feels like it represents a ticking time bomb countdown to another democratic norm exploding as the Trump administration lights a fuse and organizations looking for transactional gains refuse to stomp it out. Which brings us to the latest explosion. NYT (Gift Article): Paramount to Pay Trump $16 Million to Settle ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit. The negotiated settlement hardly amounts to rounding error for Paramount, considering it essentially pays for approval of a massive sale of the company to Skydance. In the grand scheme of things, this seems like a relatively small explosion. The amount of money is modest. The deal requires no public apology. On its own, it would just be sad, pathetic, and depressing (the 2025 trifecta). But this deal doesn't exist on its own. ABC News settled a similar frivolous suit. WaPo changed its editorial policies. META paid for suspending Trump's accounts. Amazon is paying $40 million to license a Melania documentary. Each individual deal isn't a bunker buster. But after a while, all the small explosions are blowing away democracy's increasingly fragile firewall.
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Freak (Gets) Off?
"Sean 'Diddy' Combs was convicted of prostitution-related offenses but acquitted Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put one of hip-hop’s most celebrated figures behind bars for life. The mixed result came on the third day of deliberations. It could still send Combs, 55, to prison for as long as a decade, and is likely to end his career as a hitmaking music executive, fashion entrepreneur, brand ambassador and reality TV star." (My guess is that Trump will pardon Combs if he gets significant jail time, and probably would've done the same if he had been convicted of the more serious crimes.)
+ It's hard to pick the lowest form of American life. But people who congregate outside courthouses during celebrity trials are definitely in the running. "The mixed verdict was welcomed by Combs' supporters, who danced in celebration, with baby oil, outside the court." Here's the latest from NBC News.
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Blind Date
"They matched on Tinder shortly after the November presidential election, shared their mutual disappointment about Donald J. Trump’s victory and agreed to meet for a drink. Sitting at a table at Licht Cafe, a bar on Washington’s U Street corridor, Brent Efron and his date, Brady, talked a bit about home and hobbies. But Brady — or at least that’s the name he used — repeatedly steered the conversation back to Mr. Efron’s job at the Environmental Protection Agency. 'It was a boring date,' Mr. Efron, 29, recalled. 'He just wanted to talk about work.'" But this was no ordinary, boring date. "Brady left after about an hour and Mr. Efron said he barely thought about the date again. Until a video of him appeared on the website of Project Veritas, a right-wing group known for using covert recordings to embarrass political opponents. Brady, who had posed as a politically liberal commercial real estate agent and recent transplant to the capital, was actually a Project Veritas operative with a hidden camera. NYT (Gift Article) with a pretty incredible story, even by today's standards: An Offhand Remark About Gold Bars, Secretly Recorded, Upended His Life.
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Extra, Extra
Bombs Away: "The shipments were in Poland when they were being halted and included Patriot air-defense interceptors, air-to-air missiles, Hellfire air-to-ground missiles and surface-to-surface rockets, artillery rounds, and Stinger surface-to-air missiles." WSJ (Gift Article): U.S. Halts Key Weapons for Ukraine in New Sign of Weakening Support for Kyiv. Hopefully, Europe will step up. They definitely understand the risk. Denmark Begins Drafting Women as Russian Threat Looms.
+ Crime Pays: Here's another era-defining lede from the NYT(Gift Article): "A former F.B.I. agent who was charged with encouraging the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to kill police officers has been named as an adviser to the Justice Department task force that President Trump established to seek retribution against his political enemies."
+ Wisconsin Welcomes in 1850: "A nearly 200-year-old abortion ban has been overturned in Wisconsin, just months after the state elected a liberal justice to the court." Wisconsin Supreme Court Repeals 1849 Abortion Ban. This was only overturned by a one justice margin. Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists are moving beyond the courts and using funding cuts to attack women's health. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Biggest Anti-Abortion Victory Since Dobbs. "One piece of the [Senate spending] package has received comparatively little attention: a provision that would block abortion clinics from receiving Medicaid funds for any of the non-abortion services they provide."
+ New World Odor: "Today, those moves are seen by Mr. Trump’s detractors as a money grab of historic proportions. But an analysis by The New York Times of thousands of pages of internal Trump Organization documents filed in one of the legal actions against him suggests a more urgent motivation for Mr. Trump’s behavior: a need, rather than simply a desire, for easy money to keep his empire intact." NYT (Gift Article): Trump’s Finances Were Shaky. Then He Began to Capitalize on His Comeback. Next up: Trump Fragrance. (Luckily, I already plug my nose when reading the news.)
+ Nuke Juke: Iran suspends cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog.
+ Vietnam Balm: "Vietnam also agreed that goods would be hit with a 40% tariff rate if they originated in another country and were transferred to Vietnam for final shipment to the United States. The process, known as transshipping, is used to circumvent trade barriers. China, a top exporter to the U.S., has reportedly used Vietnam as a transshipment hub." Trump announces Vietnam trade deal.
+ Swim Suit: Penn to Revoke Transgender Swimmer’s Records and Apologize to Female Swimmers.
+ Vicious Cycle: "The ‘Red Panda’ rides a seven-foot-tall unicycle while catching and balancing a large number of metal bowls on her head during her act." Popular unicycle performer Red Panda injured at half-time of WNBA game.
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Bottom of the News
"There are myriad reasons we attach ourselves to public figures and track their daily lives with the same attention and passion that we do our favorite TV shows, movies, and sports teams. And there may be no celebrity interaction more purely entertaining than two of them beefing. Think about it: all of the excitement and none of the personal hazard." The Ringer: The Best Beefs of the 21st Century, Ranked. (