The Powers of a President in a Shutdown

The President can declare certain government functions “essential” or “excepted,” keeping agencies like the military, law enforcement, and air traffic control operational. But there’s a catch—essential employees must work without pay until Congress fixes the problem. Federal workers have been through this before: the shutdown ends, they get their back pay, and Washington pats itself on the back for solving a crisis of its own making.

The President can also use emergency authorities, but this is a legal minefield. If there’s a direct national security threat—an attack, a war, a cyber event—the President has some latitude to redirect funds. But using emergency powers to sidestep Congress and keep the entire government running? That’s where the law draws a hard line. The Antideficiency Act (ADA), a relic of the 19th century, explicitly prohibits government agencies from spending money that hasn’t been appropriated. Violating it isn’t just a bureaucratic no-no—it’s a crime.

The Treasury Department, under the President’s direction, can engage in some financial gymnastics to keep the lights on a little longer. This means shifting money around, deferring payments, or taking “extraordinary measures” (such as pausing investments in government retirement funds) to avoid hitting the debt ceiling. But these moves are stall tactics, not solutions—they don’t create new money, they just buy time.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has joined billionaire Frank McCourt’s bid to acquire TikTok as a strategic adviser.

McCourt’s internet advocacy organization, Project Liberty, announced this week that the Ohanian, an investor married to tennis star Serena Williams, had joined a consortium called “The People’s Bid for TikTok”.

“I’m officially now one of the people trying to buy TikTok US — and bring it on-chain,” Ohanian said in a series of posts made Tuesday on X, referencing a decentralized, blockchain-based platform that Project Liberty says it will leverage to provide users more control over their online data.

If successful in its bid, Project Liberty said the technology “will serve as the backbone of the redesigned TikTok, ensuring that privacy, security, and digital independence are no longer optional but foundational.” When asked by an X user on Monday what he would call TikTok if he purchased it, Ohanian said: “TikTok: Freedom Edition.”

Last week, Trump threatened in a social media post to punish any university that permits “illegal” protests. On Friday he cancelled hundreds of millions in grants and contracts with Columbia University.

Although America has long been the global leader in scientific output, China is now surging ahead. Even before Trump’s cuts in research funding, China was projected to match U.S. research spending within five years.

China has already surpassed the U.S. as the top producer of highly cited papers and international patent applications. It now awards more science and engineering Ph.D.s than the U.S.

Tyrants close universities. Fascists burn books. Trump is destroying America’s most important asset — its innovative mind.

Yes, creators play an essential role, Harari concedes. But it is the editors that shape culture.

They are the ones who decide what gets included and excluded, what gets published and what gets left on the cutting room floor. They shape what has the chance to enter into the zeitgeist and what falls away into obscurity.

For centuries, the editing role has been in human hands—shaped by their power, and at times, influenced by their biases and preferences.

But today, as Harari points out, much of that editorial power has shifted to technology. On Instagram, X, or TikTok, it’s no longer human editors making the calls. Instead, a complex web of algorithms—trained often on opaque criteria—determines what gets amplified and what fades into the void.

This week was Donald Trump’s first State of the Union. Wall Street is abuzz with rumors Trump is seeking to re-architect the global financial system. Plus his enforcers go hard-core on Google.

Anyway, the Trump theory is that the U.S. can essentially get other countries to maintain the U.S. as reserve currency, but correct some of the imbalances it fosters and essentially force other nations to stop free-riding off U.S. security and one-sided open markets. As Gillian Tett noted in the Financial times, “Bessent says Trump will ask other governments to put themselves into ‘red,’ ‘green’ and ‘yellow’ boxes — ie choose to be foes, friends or adjacent players. ‘Green’ countries will get military protection and tariff relief, but must embrace a currency accord. Some ‘yellow’ — or even ‘red’ — nations might cut transactional deals. There could be two stages with Mar-a-Lago, the thinking goes: one with allies and the second with others.”

At any rate, it’s not clear if there ever will be a “Mar-a-Lago Accord,” but the logic of it is where we’re heading. It’s already starting to happen, as Germany discusses getting rid of its “debt break.” And while Trump is widely distrusted, most of his arguments on foreign policy – Europe must re-arm, global imbalances must be corrected, the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency is too costly – have been widely understood for five or six decades. But global elites, including Wall Street, but also most foreign elites who love their dollar assets and export-led growth, freaked out whenever anyone tried to correct anything. But these things will get fixed, either through negotiation or through war. The latter is much more painful.

The Powers of a President in a Shutdown

The President can declare certain government functions “essential” or “excepted,” keeping agencies like the military, law enforcement, and air traffic control operational. But there’s a catch—essential employees must work without pay until Congress fixes the problem. Federal workers have been through this before: the shutdown ends, they get their back pay, and Washington pats itself on the back for solving a crisis of its own making.

The President can also use emergency authorities, but this is a legal minefield. If there’s a direct national security threat—an attack, a war, a cyber event—the President has some latitude to redirect funds. But using emergency powers to sidestep Congress and keep the entire government running? That’s where the law draws a hard line. The Antideficiency Act (ADA), a relic of the 19th century, explicitly prohibits government agencies from spending money that hasn’t been appropriated. Violating it isn’t just a bureaucratic no-no—it’s a crime.

The Treasury Department, under the President’s direction, can engage in some financial gymnastics to keep the lights on a little longer. This means shifting money around, deferring payments, or taking “extraordinary measures” (such as pausing investments in government retirement funds) to avoid hitting the debt ceiling. But these moves are stall tactics, not solutions—they don’t create new money, they just buy time.

Smerconish Polls

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has joined billionaire Frank McCourt’s bid to acquire TikTok as a strategic adviser.

McCourt’s internet advocacy organization, Project Liberty, announced this week that the Ohanian, an investor married to tennis star Serena Williams, had joined a consortium called “The People’s Bid for TikTok”.

“I’m officially now one of the people trying to buy TikTok US — and bring it on-chain,” Ohanian said in a series of posts made Tuesday on X, referencing a decentralized, blockchain-based platform that Project Liberty says it will leverage to provide users more control over their online data.

If successful in its bid, Project Liberty said the technology “will serve as the backbone of the redesigned TikTok, ensuring that privacy, security, and digital independence are no longer optional but foundational.” When asked by an X user on Monday what he would call TikTok if he purchased it, Ohanian said: “TikTok: Freedom Edition.”

Last week, Trump threatened in a social media post to punish any university that permits “illegal” protests. On Friday he cancelled hundreds of millions in grants and contracts with Columbia University.

Although America has long been the global leader in scientific output, China is now surging ahead. Even before Trump’s cuts in research funding, China was projected to match U.S. research spending within five years.

China has already surpassed the U.S. as the top producer of highly cited papers and international patent applications. It now awards more science and engineering Ph.D.s than the U.S.

Tyrants close universities. Fascists burn books. Trump is destroying America’s most important asset — its innovative mind.

Yes, creators play an essential role, Harari concedes. But it is the editors that shape culture.

They are the ones who decide what gets included and excluded, what gets published and what gets left on the cutting room floor. They shape what has the chance to enter into the zeitgeist and what falls away into obscurity.

For centuries, the editing role has been in human hands—shaped by their power, and at times, influenced by their biases and preferences.

But today, as Harari points out, much of that editorial power has shifted to technology. On Instagram, X, or TikTok, it’s no longer human editors making the calls. Instead, a complex web of algorithms—trained often on opaque criteria—determines what gets amplified and what fades into the void.

Here I focus on how the Trump-Musk administration is innovating the global authoritarian playbook, starting with the structure and use of executive authority. Trump has a novel power-sharing arrangement with an unelected private citizen who is essentially executing a hostile takeover of the U.S. government to capture data, neutralize investigations into his private companies, and use our country as a laboratory for a new form of authoritarian techno-governance that requires the wrecking of democracy.

The Trump administration’s actions since Jan. 20 echo traditional authoritarian assaults on democratic institutions. There is the expansion of the executive branch, which politicizes and domesticates the judiciary, the civil service, and other institutions. There is also a multi-pronged attempt to curb and discredit the financial and political authority of Congress by making massive use of executive orders as instruments of governance.

It’s just pain now in exchange for more pain later.

Trump and his people seem to be embracing the devastation. The party line is that this economic disaster represents temporary but necessary pain — a period of adjustment while Trump’s policies create a utopian future economy free of all foreign entanglements. In a statement that probably sparked the most recent selloff, Trump himself declared:

There could be a little disruption. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective… we go by quarters. What we’re doing is building a foundation for the future.

It’s the only way to hold the Trump regime accountable. Call your senators now.

The president of the United States and the richest person in the world are already shutting the government down. They have effectively closed USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They have sent half the personnel of the Department of Education packing. They are eliminating Environmental Protection Agency offices responsible for addressing high levels of pollution facing poor communities.

They are usurping from Congress the power of the purse — the power to decide what services are to be funded and received by the American people — and are arrogating that power to themselves.

Congratulations, Donald Trump: You are officially Richard Nixon’s revenge. Not many presidents have sought to emulate Nixon since he was forced to resign in disgrace in August 1974. But you are going there. And in many ways you are right to do so. You just need to tread warily. There is a reason Richard is not fondly remembered today — except by you.

Many of my European friends are reeling from the events of the past two weeks. They feel the way many US allies felt on the night of Sunday, Aug. 15, 1971, after President Nixon had gone on TV to announce a 10% surcharge on all imports, a supposedly temporary suspension of the convertibility of the dollar into gold, and a 90-day wage and price freeze.

The “Nixon Shock” was in response to a run on gold by European holders of dollars, as well as a rise in US inflation. But it had a geopolitical counterpart. Nixon’s announcement a month earlier, on July 15, that he would be visiting Communist China the following year was as big a shock in Japan and Taiwan as the dollar devaluation a month later.

Bottom line: if you were trying to create an economic meltdown, you could not be trying any harder than Trump is.

And Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert of totalitarian regimes, makes clear that this comes right out of the authoritarian playbook—because of the opportunities that a meltdown creates both politically and economically…for some:

News literacy, as I argue in my open-access 2020 book “News Literacy and Democracy” and in recent research with colleagues, is about more than fact-checking and detecting AI-generated fakes. It’s about understanding how modern media works and how content is influenced, from TikTok “newsfluencers” to FOX News to The New York Times.

Here are six ways to become a smarter, saner news consumer.

1. Recognize the influence of algorithms

Algorithms are the hidden computer formulas that mediate everything news consumers read, watch, click on and react to online. Despite the illusion of neutrality, algorithms shape people’s perceptions of reality and are designed to maximize engagement.

Algorithmic recommendation engines that power everything from X to YouTube can even contribute to a slow-burn destabilization of American society by shoving consumers into partisan echo chambers that increase polarization and erode social trust.

Sometimes, algorithms can feed falsehoods that warp people’s perceptions or tell them to engage in dangerous behavior. Facebook groups spreading “Stop the Steal” messages contributed to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. TikTok algorithms had people drinking laundry detergent in the “borax challenge.” Dylann Roof killed nine Black people based on falsehoods from hate groups he found in search results.

Rather than passively consuming whatever appears in your feeds – allowing brain rot to set in – actively seek out a variety of sources to inform you about current events. The news shouldn’t just tell you what you want to hear.

And spread the word. People who simply understand that algorithms filter information are more likely to take steps to combat misinformation.

2. Understand the economics of corporate news

Media outlets operate within economic systems that shape their priorities.

For-profit newsrooms, which produce the bulk of news consumed in the U.S., rely heavily on advertising revenue, which can reduce the quality of news and create a commercial bias. Places such as ABC, CNN and FOX, as well as local network TV affiliates, can still do good work, but their business model helps to explain sensational horse-race election coverage and false-balance reporting that leaves room for doubt on established facts about climate change and vaccines.

At the same time, the economic outlook for news is not good. Declining revenues and staff cuts also reduce the quality of news.

Nonprofit newsrooms and public media provide alternatives that generally prioritize public interest over profit. And if you have the budget, paying for quality journalism with a subscription can help credible outlets survive.

Traditional journalism has never been perfect, but the collapse of the news business is unquestionably bad for democracy. Countries with better funding for public media tend to have stronger democracies, and compared with other rich nations, the U.S. spends almost nothing on public service broadcasting.

3. Focus on source evaluation and verification

Particularly with AI-generated content on the rise, source evaluation and verification are essential skills. Here are some ways to identify trustworthy journalism:

• Quality of evidence: Are claims verified with support from a variety of informed individuals and perspectives?
• Transparency about sources: Is the reporter clear about where their information came from and who shared it?
• Adherence to ethical guidelines: Does the outlet follow the basic journalistic principles of accuracy and independence?
• Corrections: Does the outlet correct its errors and follow up on incomplete reporting?

Be cautious with content that lacks the author’s name, relies heavily on anonymous sources – or uses no sources at all – or is published by outlets with a clear ideological agenda. These aren’t immediate disqualifiers – some credible news magazines such as The Economist have no bylines, for example, and some sources legitimately need anonymity for protection – but watch out for news operations that routinely engage in these practices and obscure their motive for doing so.

A good online verification practice is called “lateral reading.” That’s when you open new browser tabs to verify claims you see on news sites and social media. Ask: Is anyone else covering this, and have they reached similar conclusions?

4. Examine your emotional reactions

One of the hallmarks of misinformation is its ability to provoke strong emotional responses, whether outrage, fear or validation.

These reactions, research shows, can cloud judgment and make people more susceptible to false or misleading information. The primitive brains of humans are wired to reject information that challenges our beliefs and to accept information we like, a phenomenon known as confirmation bias.

When encountering content that sparks an emotional reaction, ask yourself: Who benefits from this narrative? What evidence supports it? Is this information informative or manipulative?

If the answers make you suspicious, investigate further before acting or sharing.

5. Guard against propaganda

Everyone in politics works to shape narratives in order to gain support for their agenda. It’s called spin.

But Trump goes further, spreading documented lies to pump up his followers and undermine the legitimacy of basic democratic institutions.

He also targets media he doesn’t like. From discrediting critical outlets as “fake news” or calling journalists the “enemy of the people,” these tactics silence dissent, undermine public trust in journalism and alter perceptions around acceptable public discourse and behavior.

Meanwhile, he amplifies information and people who support his political causes. This is called propaganda.

Understanding the mechanics of propaganda – its use of repetition, emotional appeal, scapegoating, scare tactics and unrealistic promises – can help inoculate people against its influence.

6. Stay engaged

Democracy relies on an informed and active citizenry to hold accountable their government and the officials who work in it as well as other powerful players in society. Yet the sheer volume of misinformation and bad news these days can feel overwhelming.

Rather than tuning out – what scholars call “news avoidance” – you can practice critical consumption of news.

Read deeply, look beyond headlines and short video clips, question the framing of stories, and encourage discussions about the role of media in society. Share reliable information with your friends and colleagues, and model good news hygiene for others.

Correcting misinformation is notoriously hard, so if someone you know shares it, start a dialogue by asking – privately and gently – where they heard it and whether they think it’s really true.

Finally, set goals for your consumption. What are your information needs at any given moment, and where can you meet that need? Some experts say 30 minutes a day is enough. Don’t waste your time on garbage.

Touch grass

While it’s important to stay engaged, so is getting outside and connecting with nature to calm and soothe your busy brain. Logging off and connecting with people in real life will keep your support system strong for when things are tough. Protect your mental health by turning off notifications and taking breaks from your phone.

Practicing good news hygiene isn’t just about protecting ourselves – it’s about fostering a media environment that supports democracy and informed participation.

Tesla’s stock should be driven off of the road in order to preserve the dignity of public employees, public lands, American democracy, and the constitutional checks and balances that sustain our liberties and keep tyrants at bay.

Elon Musk is making his move.

He is an aggressive and metastatic threat to world peace and stability. He is a sinister and treacherous man.

He is a Nazi.

Elon Musk’s companies must be shut down.

This week was Donald Trump’s first State of the Union. Wall Street is abuzz with rumors Trump is seeking to re-architect the global financial system. Plus his enforcers go hard-core on Google.

Anyway, the Trump theory is that the U.S. can essentially get other countries to maintain the U.S. as reserve currency, but correct some of the imbalances it fosters and essentially force other nations to stop free-riding off U.S. security and one-sided open markets. As Gillian Tett noted in the Financial times, “Bessent says Trump will ask other governments to put themselves into ‘red,’ ‘green’ and ‘yellow’ boxes — ie choose to be foes, friends or adjacent players. ‘Green’ countries will get military protection and tariff relief, but must embrace a currency accord. Some ‘yellow’ — or even ‘red’ — nations might cut transactional deals. There could be two stages with Mar-a-Lago, the thinking goes: one with allies and the second with others.”

At any rate, it’s not clear if there ever will be a “Mar-a-Lago Accord,” but the logic of it is where we’re heading. It’s already starting to happen, as Germany discusses getting rid of its “debt break.” And while Trump is widely distrusted, most of his arguments on foreign policy – Europe must re-arm, global imbalances must be corrected, the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency is too costly – have been widely understood for five or six decades. But global elites, including Wall Street, but also most foreign elites who love their dollar assets and export-led growth, freaked out whenever anyone tried to correct anything. But these things will get fixed, either through negotiation or through war. The latter is much more painful.

The Tesla Takedown movement has been a success. Dems want it to grow even bigger.

“For Tesla stockholders, the price of their shares going down is a point of accountability,” he said. “For Republican House and Senate members, if they see some precipitous decline in their approval that can be tied directly to Elon Musk firing vets, boom, that’s the point at which they have some credible exit path.”

“But we’re not there for some time. It’s going to take a while for them to appreciate that this is about Elon Musk.”

Canada is a giant nation, not because of her immense geography, but rather the magnitude of her immense contributions towards peace, justice and human progress.
Donald Trump’s aggression will fail because Trump is small, and Canada is great. Yet, this season of abject idiocy and insult will long linger.

It will long stain our national honor.

If that formulation of words seems strange or antiquated to you then please consider that might be a major cause of our current dilemma.

A great nation cannot remain so for long when virtue becomes an endangered species, and nobility becomes an alien concept in a society that is built on a foundation of ideas about human liberty — not nihilistic philosophies about the rights of the strong to destroy as they please, and take what they want — whether it be from a person, a family, a community, or a smaller nation.