the kludge

• the sun is a dayglo disc . . .

take a cudgel to the kludge
frou frou in the bijou •

What I’m Reading:

In little-noticed court documents, federal officials acknowledged this month that they had terminated the funding “based solely” on political criteria, targeting projects in states that were represented by Democrats and had voted for Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee, in the 2024 election.

The admission showed how President Trump has weaponized the provision of federal education, energy, health, housing and infrastructure aid in his second term. Far from rooting out the sort of misspending that Mr. Trump sees as rife in Washington, the White House has instead sought to leverage the budget as a tool to assist its allies — or as a cudgel to hurt the president’s foes.

— Tony Rumm & Brad Plummer / “Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him” / The New York Times