Five-day catastrophe
By 
This sounds really bad:
President Trump fired 17 inspectors general, the internal watchdogs who monitor federal agencies, on Friday night, capping a week of dramatic shake-ups of the federal bureaucracy focused on loyalty to the president, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
The sweeping move did not affect Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. But inspectors general at several major agencies were believed to have been fired.
The Washington Post reported the firings earlier. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The firings threatened to upend the traditional independence of the internal watchdogs, and critics of Mr. Trump reacted with alarm.
“Inspectors general are charged with rooting out government waste, fraud, abuse and preventing misconduct,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “President Trump is dismantling checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.”
People involved in the Trump transition had signaled such a shake-up was likely. And it is in keeping with an effort that Mr. Trump began in early 2020, when he dismissed five inspectors general from their roles.
At the time, Mr. Trump was dealing with a raging coronavirus pandemic across the country, but he also was seeking to reshape the government to remove people he saw as trying to damage him. That included Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community, who dealt with the anonymous whistle-blower complaint that led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment by the House.
Democrats accused Mr. Trump of trying to gut the independent offices.
The conventions of Objective Journalism ™ also require somebody to accuse the sun of rising in the east I suppose, but it’s still annoying.
. . . Downpuppy points out that this is actshully illegal per one of them law thingees:
(b) Removal or Transfer.—An Inspector General may be removed from office by the President. If an Inspector General is removed from office or is transferred to another position or location within an establishment, the President shall communicate in writing the reasons for any such removal or transfer to both Houses of Congress, not later than 30 days before the removal or transfer. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a personnel action otherwise authorized by law, other than transfer or removal.
. . . oh yeah another fun detail the NYT story missed is that, per Yashar Ali, most of the fired IGs were appointed to their posts by Trump.
Meanwhile it turns out Trump owns 80% of his complete scam personal crypto coin, which is a term of art here, meaning that the boosters of “legitimate” [sic] crypto coins consider it a scam. The best detail is that Trump himself acknowledges he has no idea how any of this is supposed to work, but he does know it’s making him a lot richer (Reminder: Donald Trump is going to be president of the United States for the next four years minus five days, absent interventions divine):
US President Donald Trump has been criticised for launching a meme-coin while saying he “doesn’t know much” about the cryptocurrency.
The digital coin called TRUMP appeared on his social media accounts ahead of his inauguration on Monday and quickly became one of the most valuable crypto coins. The value of a single coin shot up to $75 within a day, but since has fallen to $39.
But the launch of the so-called meme-coin – a cryptocurrency with no utility other than for fun or speculation – has been widely criticised by industry insiders.
“Trump’s comments about not knowing much about the coin back up my opinion that he is making a mockery of the industry. It’s a stunt,” says Danny Scott, CEO of CoinCorner.
The latest dip in value came after Trump told reporters: “I don’t know much about it other than I launched it, other than it was very successful.”
When he was told his coin raised several billion dollars for him, he played it down saying “several billion – that’s peanuts for these guys” pointing to tech billionaires assembled for a press conference about AI.
Reports from the world of Best Forest Floor Desert Management Practices:
A friend: “We are watering the tumbleweeds, if only Gavin turns that valve. We can only await the good ideas he’ll come up with as he enters his 80s.”
LGM commenter Pianomover observed yesterday that all of Trump’s comments about the Los Angeles fires indicate that he saw Chinatown once. This, unfortunately, is probably not a mordant joke but rather the literal truth, assuming there’s a difference any more.
. . . oh I almost forgot this one:
Trump reportedly doubled down on his threat to seize Greenland in a phone call with Denmark’s prime minister, sending the country’s government into a panic.
Trump spoke to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on the phone for about 45 minutes last week. While neither leader has commented specifically on the call, officials close to the situation said it went poorly, as reported by The Financial Times. They stated that Trump was “aggressive and confrontational” on the call.
“It was horrendous,” one official said. “He was very firm,” another added. “It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.”
“The intent was very clear. They want it. The Danes are now in crisis mode,” another official told the publication. “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.”
“It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs,” said a former Danish official.