Is this a coup?

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News, Business

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is Elon Musk’s control of government offices as an unelected official a coup? Lots of people seem to think so. We’ll explain why. Plus, another potential government shutdown is looming and it may work in Democrats’ favor. And, one surprisingly effective (and protein-rich) way food insecurity in Pennsylvania is being addressed.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

“What the Black Hawk Pilots Could See, Just Before the Crash” by The New York Times

“Shutdown fears grow as Trump battles multiply” by The Hill

“‘We would call it a coup’: Watchdogs and Dems attack Elon Musk Treasury Department takeover” from USA Today

“The ‘Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly’ of the United States Government” by The Atlantic

“Elon Musk’s Power Grab Is Lawless, Dangerous, and—Yes—a Coup” from Slate

“The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s power grab: a coup veiled by chaos” by The Guardian

“Processing Deer to Eliminate Food Insecurity” by the Daily Yonder

Got a question or comment for us? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Shall we?
0:01.4	Yes, let's.
0:07.6	Hey everybody, I'm Kyle Rosedall.
0:09.0	Welcome back to Make Me Smart.
0:10.6	Where we make today makes sense.
0:13.5	And I'm Kimberly Adams.
0:14.9	Today is Wednesday, February 5th.
0:16.8	Thank you all for joining us.
0:18.9	It is a news and smiles kind of day. Let's get right to it.
0:23.3	I will do the news because I've got a non-on-the-news story, but a really interesting data visualization from the amazing data visualization team of the New York Times.
0:32.1	The helicopter crash and the American Airlines jet crash, obviously back in Washington.
0:41.4	He says to the woman sitting in Washington.
0:45.5	Anyway, so investigators still working on it.
0:47.8	They're pulling wreckage and remains out of the river.
0:51.9	I think they've gotten everybody out.
0:53.2	They've identified all but one.
0:54.4	Anyway, that's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is a really cool data
0:59.6	visualization from the New York Times about how difficult it was for the crew of that helicopter
1:05.0	to see what was going on. And it's, there's like parallax error, there's elevation, there's, you can't see
1:12.7	out the windshield. It's really cool. You got to check it out. We will put it on the homepage and,
1:16.6	and that's it. It was not on the craziness of the day. It was on something else. And that's why I went for
1:21.5	it because. Yeah. And then I saw something on the Washington Post about how the, the flight corridor
	...

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