SHUTTING DOWN AND PURGING: The FBI handed over a list of as many as 5,000 agents who worked on the January 6^th investigations, bowing to a demand by senior Justice official Emil Bove, who used to be one of President Trump’s defense lawyers.

  The agents are worried that their names might be made public and worse, that they might be purged for investigating the January 6^th crimes.

  It’s been a stunning week in which Trump and his chief hatchet man, Elon Musk, set about routing out perceived enemies, dismantling what they consider to be the “deep state,” and proposing that the Gaza strip levelled by war be turned into an international resort owned by the United States.

  Musk and his team forced access to the Treasury Department payment system, allowing them to examine everything from major contract payments down to individual Social Security and Medicare accounts. Musk was revealed to have a team of a half dozen operatives ages 19 to 24 looking for waste and fraud, causing one wag to say that they’re getting high school credit for the work.

  Today a federal judge temporarily restricted access by Musk’s government efficiency team to the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems, saying there was a risk of “irreparable harm.”

  The Musk approach is to assume that government operations are corrupt, unnecessary, or both, without taking any time to find out. Without saying so, Trump and Musk are following the blueprint of the right wing project 2025, the plan for government reform and elimination that Trump said he knew nothing about during his campaign.

  Some highlights of Project 2025:

-Dismantling the “Administrative State”

-Shutting down the Education department

-Reviewing and overhauling federal spending

-Ignoring Congressional spending laws

-Ending Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) programs

-Ending programs to protect the environment

  This week as many as 10,000 employees of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) were locked out of their offices and computers and put on paid leave. Trump said the agency was “run by radical lunatics”

and yesterday posted “CLOSE IT DOWN!” on his Truth Social feed, accusing the agency of unspecified corruption and fraud. Yesterday in a press appearance he said, “The whole thing is a fraud.”

  The agency provides humanitarian aid around the world but USAID employees overseas were told they have 30 days to return to the states at agency expense or stay longer and pay for it themselves.

  The administration fired the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and told all employees to freeze their work. 

  At least 168 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justicewere placed on administrative leave, according to agency officials. 

  Trump told his new Attorney General Pam Bondi to steer a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” in the federal government, accusing  the Department of Justice, the IRS and FBI as perpetrators but did not offer any details. He posted on Truth Social, “After years of decline, Americans are re-asserting our true identity as a people ordained by God to be the freest and most exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth.”

  Trump succeeded in having the NCAA ban transgender women from women’s sports with an executive order that would pull federal funding for schools that fail to comply.

  On the matter of turning Gaza into a beach resort, Trump said yesterday that,  “It’s been very well received where basically the United States would view it as a real estate transaction where we’ll be an investor in that part of the world.” 

  Despite his claim of a warm reception, the idea fell flat with Palestinians, who would have to leave Gaza, several Middle East countries, and congressional Republicans, who would have to appropriate the money to build Mar-a-Gaza.

Trump claimed that “The fact that we have an investment there would go a long way toward creating peace,” as if the Hamas militants would just pull up a beach chair and relax.

  Yesterday Trump said he is revoking former President Biden’s security clearances and ending his daily briefings.

  And to finish it up, Trump posted on his Truth Social that, “I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!”

THE OBIT PAGE: Actor Tony Roberts, who played the stable and affable sidekick to the neurotic Woody Allen in such movies as “Annie Hall” and “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy” has died at age 85.

THE SPIN RACK: Hamas released three more gaunt-looking Israeli hostages today after prodding them to give short speeches thanking the militants who had held them captive for more than a year.— Fox News hired Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, to host a new Saturday night show called “My View with Lara Trump.” — Kanye West, the rapper who goes by “Ye” with the wife who appears near-naked in public recanted his 2023 apology for past antisemitic statements, declared that he is a Nazi and in an hours-long rant on social media professed his love for Adolf Hitler. 

JUST SUPER: Super Bowl LIX … that’s 59 for those who never studied Latin … kicks off tomorrow on the Fox channel at about 3:40 pm in New Orleans.

  The Kansas City Chiefs are gunning for their third straight Super Bowl win, something that’s never been done. The Philadelphia Eagles, powered by their nearly unstoppable running back Saquon Barkley, will be looking to avenge their loss to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl two years ago.

  Singer-songwriter Jean Batiste, who for seven years provided live music for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, will sing the national anthem.  Grammy Award-winner Kendrick Lamar will headline the halftime show for those people who actually watch it. 

  The Chiefs are favored by a slight margin. Among many side bets gamblers can place is on whether Travis Kelce will propose to Taylor Swift on the field if the Chiefs win the game. 

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