Trade war: Trump’s tariff calculations slammed by some economists

@JamesSurowiecki. Author of The Wisdom of Crowds. Contributing writer for Fast Company and The Atlantic. Editor at The Yale Review. I wrote The Financial Page for The New Yorker. “Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn’t actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

Judge Rejects Government’s Attempt to Dismiss EFF Lawsuit Against OPM, DOGE, and Musk

EFF: Court Confirms That, If Proven, DOGE’s Ongoing Access to Personnel Records Is Illegal. A lawsuit seeking to stop the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from disclosing tens of millions of Americans’ private, sensitive information to Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) can continue, a federal judge ruled Thursday.  Judge Denise L. Cote …

Subjects: Courts, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Mail, E-Records, Economy, ID Theft, Internet, Legal Research

Social Security Website Crashes as DOGE-Linked Disruption at the Agency Continues

Gizmodo: “Key parts of the Social Security website have proven inaccessible over the past week, and the agency now says that it is probing the cause of the service disruptions. The problems come not long after the agency compelled retirees to seek help more exclusively online, as it attempts to downsize its phone operations. Last …

Subjects: E-Government, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Search Engines

The Torrents of Springsteen

Metafilter: “Bruce Springsteen is set to release over 80 new songs this summer with his newly announced “Tracks II: The Lost Albums” collection. Planned for release on June 27, the seven full-length albums will include songs by The Boss that have never been heard. The songs span Springsteen’s decades-long career and were written between 1983 …

Subjects: Internet

How the U.S. Public and AI Experts View Artificial Intelligence

“The public and experts are far apart in their enthusiasm and predictions for AI. But they share similar views in wanting more personal control and worrying regulation will fall short. With artificial intelligence no longer the stuff of science fiction, its benefits and risks are being debated by everyone from casual observers to scholars. A …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

Inspector general will scrutinize Hegseth’s disclosures in Signal chat

Follow up to Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal – the Washington Post [no paywall] – “The inquiry follows revelations that top administration officials used the unclassified messaging platform to coordinate military strikes in Yemen…The Pentagon inspector general’s office said Thursday that it will scrutinize disclosures made by Defense Secretary …

Subjects: Congress, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Defense, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research

LLRX March 2025 Issue – 8 new articles 7 new columns

LLRX.com March 2025 Issue Censor, purge, defund: how Trump is following the authoritarian playbook on science and universities – Professor of Operational Research Christina Pagel Climate and DEI Deleted From Government Websites, Federal Workers Fired, Colleges Erase Programs, Law Firms Blackballed, Holocaust Denied – This March 27, 2025 update by Sabrina I. Pacifici chronicles Trump’s …

Subjects: AI, Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Cybersecurity, E-Government, E-Records, Economy, Education, Environmental Law, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Medicine, Privacy

U.S. Government demands new internal passport for citizens

BoingBoing: “Starting May 7, 2025, I’ll need a REAL ID to fly from Houston to New Orleans. Apparently, my current driver’s license — you know, the one issued by my state government — isn’t “real” enough anymore. Remember when we used to mock totalitarian regimes for requiring “internal passports?” Now we get to mock ourselves! …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Government Documents, Privacy, Transportation

Censor, purge, defund: how Trump is following the authoritarian playbook on science and universities

Via LLRX – Censor, purge, defund: how Trump is following the authoritarian playbook on science and universities – Professor of Operational Research Christian Pagel has mapped 35 of the Trump administration’s attacks on science and universities to the authoritarian playbook – and considers what it means for attacks still to come. Pagel states that the …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Education, Food and Nutrition, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Medicine

RFK Jr.‘s bloodbath at HHS: Blowback grows as losses become clearer

ACLU sues National Institutes of Health for ‘ideological purge’ of research projects – The lawsuit says NIH has canceled more than 670 research grants, which were due more than $1.1 billion in funding. Ars Technica: “Last week, Health Secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the Trump administration would hack off nearly a …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Government, Government Documents, Health Care, HIV/AIDS, Medicine