NO, DOGE IS NOT RADICAL: Lydia Mashburn Newman, writing for The Daily Economy, published by the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), lays out in terms even a Washington bureaucrat or career Member of Congress can understand on why what the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is no mystery – it’s introducing to the federal bureaucracy what are in the real world widely accepted “best practices.”

FAIL, BRITANNIA: Apple turns off data protection in the UK rather than comply with backdoor mandate.

In 2024, the UK revamped its UK Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 to give itself the authority to legally — and secretly — compel Apple to break the end-to-end encryption that its security and privacy depends on. Despite bipartisan protests from the US, the UK issued the order and Apple cannot continue to operate its end-to-end encryption without breaking the law.

Instead of allowing the UK backdoor access to encrypted data, however, Apple has announced that it is switching off the encryption. This technically complies with the law, but means Apple does not create a backdoor that the UK or other bad actors could use.

Compliance would have meant giving UK authorities a backdoor into any iPhone or iPad anywhere in the world.

CORN, POPPED:

Bring on the sunlight.

CHANGE: US Agency Reportedly Plans to Shut Down 8,000 EV Chargers, Offload EVs.

The General Services Administration (GSA), an agency that manages the federal government’s buildings, is planning to shut down all 8,000 of its electric vehicle chargers, The Verge reports.

The GSA is also expected to offload its current stock of EVs, though it’s unknown if the vehicles will be sold or put into storage. The agency will reportedly begin instructing employees to remove the chargers—which are used for both federally owned EVs and employees’ personal vehicles—as early as next week.

The agency informed employees at one regional office that, in its efforts “to align with the current administration,” it had received direction stating that all GSA-owned charging stations “are not mission-critical,” according to an email first reported by Colorado Public Radio.

“The GSA is working on the timing of canceling current network contracts that keep the EV chargers operational. Once those contracts are canceled, the stations will be taken out of service and ‘turned off at the breaker,’” the email continued. “Other chargers will be turned off starting next week.”

The web page dedicated to the electrification of the GSA’s fleet has also been taken offline, The Verge notes.

Can’t say I have much pity for EV carmakers whose business model depended on government purchases.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Never Trump Grift Goes On, But It Has a Shelf Life Now. “The Low-T doyens of the Never Trump movement who’ve been turning vitriolic obsession into cash since 2016 are still cashing checks, which may surprise a lot of people. Sadly, there’s still a lot of money to be made when any Republican wants to stab other Republicans in the back. That’s been true for a long time but, as with so many things, it’s gotten more intense since President Trump’s first White House tenancy.”

AMERICANS: “Do you think Democrats learned anything from their historic loss last November?”

Democrats:

Who are the condoms for in pre-school?

YES:

MEGAN MCARDLE: Academia Finally Got Schooled: Universities, colleges took prestige and public support for granted. Now they are paying the price.

The left, not the right, picked this fight. Too many institutions set themselves up as the “Resistance” to Trump and tried to make a lot of mainstream political opinions anathematic, while expecting to be protected from backlash by principles such as academic freedom that they were no longer honoring. This was politically naive and criminally stupid for institutions that rely so heavily on U.S. taxpayer support. . . .

By presenting their expertise as part of a political fight, academics were not only squandering their credibility. They were asking to be treated like political adversaries. And in a real political fight, the ability to get your opponent’s journal article retracted is way less important than his ability to cut off your supply lines.

This danger has been evident for years, yet when I asked academics if this was really wise, most were curiously oblivious to the risks. Though they complained about stingy state legislatures and meddling Republican politicians, many bizarrely took them as evidence that there was little cost to politicizing academia — essentially, “They’re already attacking us, so there’s no point in trying to placate them.” They did not seem to grasp how much worse it could get.

Fundamentally, they took their prestige and public support for granted and seemed unable to imagine a world where the word “education” no longer conjured reverent deference among most of the population. Like children throwing rocks from an overpass, they felt protected by their elevated position, assuming their targets could do little but yell back. They weren’t expecting one of the drivers to get out of the car and grab a baseball bat from the trunk.

It’s not like they weren’t warned.

Plus: “The institutional left can’t control what Republicans do. It can only control its own behavior. And that behavior, however well-intentioned, was reckless in the extreme.” I’m not convinced that the behavior was at all well-intentioned, but sure.