02/10/25
Good morning! It’s Monday, February 10th.
All the News That’s Fit to Print Day.
Print? What is this? 1412? All the News That’s Fit to Hear, Day. Just because it doesn’t rhyme, doesn’t make it not true.
And now, the news.
Consumer Protections Are Out
-via CNN
On Sunday, employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were told that they would be working from home, as the DC office will be closed for the week.
No reason for the abrupt closure was given.
But we can guess.
A few days ago, Elon Musk (I hate that he’s like… I just hate talking about him) Elon tweeted “CFPB RIP” with a tombstone emoji. Then, on Friday, the Bureau’s twitter account was deleted. Also, Russel Vought, the new leader of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) who co-wrote Project 2025 and was the one who was like has anyone tried just turning federal funding off for a while? is the current acting director.
So I’m sure the offices aren’t closed for, like, a surprise party they’re throwing for the employees.
In fact, all employees were told in the email: “Effective immediately, unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law, all employees, contractors and other personnel of the bureau shall…cease all supervision and examination activity.”
So expect, any minute now, to hear the department is shuttered. This is the department that makes sure we, as consumers, aren’t getting screwed by big banks and other financial institutions.
So it’s not a surprise, necessarily, that they’re closing it but don’t let anyone ever tell you that this is supposed to, somehow, make this country safer.
Like most things in this administration, it simply weakens us.
VP Questions Legitimacy of Courts
And speaking of making us weaker… after a federal judge blocked Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency fake department from further accessing the Treasury Department (because it just feels like maybe we shouldn’t let the guy who can’t even pass a background check have access to all of our information – and actually, I mean I say he can’t pass a background check because he can’t but we don’t even know if he’s gotten through the security check. And isn’t that a great thing to not know about the guy who’s going all through our government and just getting his little grub hands into everything?)
Anyway, so a federal judge ruled to say Musk and his team should not have access to the Treasury, and then JD Vance, somehow our Vice President, tweeted: “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Couple things… no one elected Elon Musk! He is not a member of the executive branch! I realize he is your most special government employee but he is still – he is still governed by a judge!
Also – a military operation? Calm down!
This is so embarrassing.
And I really can’t be clearer about this – the judge gets to make this ruling! That’s not illegal.
Vance and Musk, who said the judge should be impeached, having a hissy fit on Twitter about this is also not illegal.
But we’re going to start getting into some pretty questionable arenas when the Vice President is suggesting that a legitimist ruling is judicial overreach.
I mean, we’re already in a Constitutional crisis but we don’t need to go all the way with it.
Don’t worry though – on his way to spending a ton of our taxes so that he can be the first president to go to the Super Bowl (I wonder what DOGE would say about that), Trump sat down with Fox News and said, about Musk, I wonder how he can devote the time to it. He's so into it."
Um, Ketamine.
He’s already said he’s on Ketamine.
More Tariffs Announced
-via NY Times
On Friday, Trump said he would announce more tariffs this week. He’s already got the 10% tariffs against China, but did not say which other countries where tariffs would be applied.
Recently, he’s talked about putting tariffs on the EU as well as industries like copper, steel, aluminum, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors.
So… we’ll see!
It’s chaos, these tariffs. Just look at last week.
Last Saturday, February 1st, Trump’s tariffs ended de minimus exemption, which allowed items to come into the US from China duty-free, as long as they were under $800.
Trump said that the exemption was creating a pathway for fentanyl to come in, so he ended it.
On Wednesday, the Post Office stopped accepting packages from China.
On Thursday, they reversed that decision.
Then finally, on Friday, the order was lifted but would stop once the secretary of commerce tells him that systems had been put “in place to fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue.”
So… chaos. Because the government never had a plan in place.
Someone just told him that the word tariffs existed, he never Alta Visted it, and now we’re here.
Noem Say No to FEMA
-via Washington Post
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said noem thank you, for FEMA.
Good joke! No notes.
Also, bad idea! Many notes!
What she actually said was that she’d recommend that Trump “get rid of FEMA the way it exists today” and instead allow local officials to have more say about how federal aid is used after disasters.
Wow. That is so smart. If only someone had thought of that before.
Jkjk that’s literally how FEMA currently operates.
So I guess a more accurate story would be: on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told the world that she knows nothing about the agency under her tutelage.
Tutelage is a funny word.
Kennedy Center Bummers
-via NPR
And finally… a dumb story that I was like… put me in coach. I can’t wait to make fun of this.
On Friday, Trump fired a variety of Kennedy Center board members. Though he didn’t name who has been fired, he said it would those who "do not share our vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”
Our vision?
My guy, I have seen the people that perform at your rallies. We do not share a vision.
Anyway, so now he’s named himself as the new chair.
Can you even?
First of all… I love the Kennedy Center Honors and you just know the artists honored this year is going to be a real who’s who. As in – no seriously, who is that?
Also – you picked yourself? You absolute loser!
Get a life!
I’m said it before and I’ll say it forever (and I mean it too!)… if they’d just given him a bigger role in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, we wouldn’t be dealing with all of this. Much in the way that Charles Manson just wanted to be a Beach Boy, if we’d let him be an actor, the only thing we’d have to deal with is not watching his movies.
Now look at where we are!
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Hey, I watched the Super Bowl for you! I did not know what happening half the time, but ____ won (add score). The halftime show was incredible though!
I also have to mention that, last Friday, I blew off National Wear Red Day – turns out, it’s a day meant to raise awareness about heart disease and strokes in women. So, we obviously do support that. But just – skip the red hat.
I’m proud of… Jalen Hurts. I know nothing about football, but he seems like a nice guy. So handsome!
But more than Jalen Hurts – because you are also nice and handsome, I’m proud of you!