Old Instincts

 (Photo by Rhonda Rubinstein)

One rainy afternoon recently, five friends came from other parts of the Bay Area to help me sort through the relics from my early years as a reporter at Rolling Stone and other magazines. I dug out copies of publications long extinct, press passes, photos, bound volumes, and most improbably, an ancient matchbook that I must have used for lighting joints.

Such is the mix of the deliberate and the random that have survived the many purges of my possessions during my travels up to the present moment.

As these relics resurface, they bring back the sights, smells, sounds and the feel of past moments, but they also reignite an old story-hunting instinct that is relevant to the current disaster unfolding in Washington.

Watch for patterns.

For younger reporters, try to not get distracted by the gaudy Trump and Musk show. There are methods to their madness. Case in point: “Elon Musk’s Enemy, USAID, Was Investigating Starlink’s Contracts in Ukraine.” (Gizmodo)

Much of what they are doing is reshaping the federal government to financially benefit themselves and their friends.

Greed begets more greed. They will overreach. To bring them down, follow the money. This is the most corrupt administration in American history.

(Thanks to Rhonda, David, Mary, Susanna and John.)

HEADLINES:

• Elon Musk’s Enemy, USAID, Was Investigating Starlink’s Contracts in Ukraine (Gizmodo)

• Trump’s blitz to expand his power is direct threat to democracy, experts say (Guardian)

• Elon Musk’s Revolutionary Terror (New Yorker)

• Four IT professionals lay out just how destructive Elon Musk’s incursion into the U.S. government could be. (Atlantic)

• Justice Dept.’s Weaponization Group Underscores Trump’s Quest for Retribution (NYT)

• The Gleeful Profiteers of Trump’s Police State (Mother Jones)

• DEI crackdown targets student books in Pentagon schools (WP)

• How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid (NBC)

• Forced leaves start for thousands at USAID under a Trump plan to gut the foreign aid agency (AP)

• Recall of USAID’s global workforce causes upheaval and distress (WP)

• US cedes ground to China with ‘self-inflicted wound’ of USAid shutdown, analysts say (Guardian)

• Shuttering of USAID could mean the end of millions in income for Midwest farm operations (Minnesota Star-Tribune)

• US farmers ‘prepare for the worst’ in new Trump trade war (Financial Times)

• Dozens of countries reject Trump administration sanctions on ICC (NBC)

• Senate confirms Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to lead powerful White House budget office (AP)

• Palantir’s Billionaire CEO Just Can’t Stop Talking About Killing People (Gizmodo)

• Who enforces judicial rulings against the president? (NPR)

• Trump continues federal purge, gutting cyber workers who combat disinformation (Politico)

• Pentagon cuts off Hegseth town hall webcast after transparency pledge (Defense News)

• Pentagon's Hegseth says 'diversity is our strength' is dumbest phrase in military history (Reuters)

• Multi-level barrage of US book bans is ‘unprecedented’, says PEN America (Guardian)

• DEI crackdown targets student books in Pentagon schools (WP)

• Pakistan issues deadline for Afghan refugees after Trump blocks US resettlement pathway (CNN)

• Trump Digs In on Gaza Takeover and Palestinian Resettlement (NYT)

• Tech Giants Double Down on Their Massive AI Spending (WSJ)

• Meta launches new program to improve speech and translation AI (TechCrunch)

• ChatGPT's Deep Research is a promising intern (Axios)

• Trump Struggling To Remember How He Related To Elon Musk (The Onion)

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