Scott Nipper

Fire crews are stretched thin as a result of Trump’s illegal National Guard deployment. He’s pulled personnel from critical firefighting missions just to stage his political theater.

@calfire.bsky.social is stepping in to fill the gaps, but this is senseless and dangerous.

For a lot of relatively comfortable Americans, electing an emotionally incontinent imbecile was a bit of entertainment. A game. Good sport, owning those libs. I hope they’re duly entertained.

🗣️REMINDER: Trump and Republicans are still trying to pass their 3 TRILLION dollar spending bill that would kick 16 million people off of their health insurance and literally take lunches away from school children. 
 
We can’t let them get away with it.

Trump turns 79 today. He is not only the oldest person ever inaugurated as president, but older today than three of our four living former presidents -- older than Obama (out of office for 8 years), Bush (out of office for 16 years, and Clinton (out of office for 24 years).

Will Donald Trump be condemning and disowning this alleged assassin? Will MAGA and Fox be asked if they contributed to his ‘radicalization’? Will Dems insist Republicans tone down their rhetoric as the GOP did in reverse after the attempt on Trump’s life (by a Republican)?

A perfect ad. Pass this along to everyone you know in New York.

Exclusive: US Marines carry out first known detention of civilian in Los Angeles, video shows Marines deployed to Los Angeles carried out the detention of a civilian on Friday, the U.S. military confirmed after being presented with Reuters images, in the first known detention by active-duty troops deployed there by President Donald Trump.

So much for the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 (amended in 2021 to explicitly cover the Marines)

Calling the Cato Institute left leaning? Lol, my economics professors warned constantly about how to use their data sparingly in projects if they required it due to how right leaning they are. Even just basic macroeconomic analysis research.

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve been on BlueSky. One of things I really missed was sports.

You don’t see that much on Mastodon. Which is where I’ve been the last few months like a nerd.

Worth pointing out that Trump's CIA director John Ratcliffe, who was in the Signal group chat, and who ludicrously tried to defend it in Congress this week, was confirmed with the votes of 21 (!) Senate Democrats.

Ridiculous.

An illustration showing the impact of parking requirements on land use. From left to right, the image depicts a gradient of increasing parking mandates: 'No Parking Required' allows for dense, walkable development; '1 Space per 500 Square Feet' introduces some parking; '1 Space per 250 Square Feet' adds more parking lots; and '1 Space per 100 Square Feet' results in sprawling, car-centric infrastructure with large parking lots dominating the landscape. The logo 'PRN' and 'PARKING REFORM NETWORK' are visible at the bottom.

“The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar, in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle, is actually the right to destroy the city.”

- Lewis Mumford

Castro: "The idea that this information, if it was presented to our committee, would not be classified, you all know is a lie. That's ridiculous."

She lied to Congress. Plain and simple. Classified information was shared and has probably constantly been shared between these people in other chats to avoid the presidential records act so they can delete it to cover things up.

No notes

Justice officials tell prosecutors to drop charges against N.Y. Mayor Eric Adams A top Justice official said New York Mayor Eric Adams should not have to face trial given his reelection campaign and the fight against crime and illegal immigration.

This is — literally — unheard of in federal prosecutions.

We can’t prosecute him because he’s a candidate for office? Wow.

i mean, in my entire life, the democrats have had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate for exactly 8 months total (between Al Franken being seated in July 09 and Scott Brown taking Ted Kennedy's seat in Feb 2010) and they used it to pass the largest expansion of the welfare state since the 60s

Ms. Hochul has strongly backed the program as important for the future of New York after having initially halted it in June. She has faced opposition from the governor of New Jersey, Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, and from Republican elected officials from New York State. Critics of the plan say it places an unfair burden on drivers from the boroughs outside Manhattan and from the suburbs who lack reliable transit options. A spokesman for Mr. Murphy, who has described congestion pricing as "a disaster for working- and middle-class New Jersey commuters and residents" in a letter to President Trump, declined to comment.

Phil Murphy’s decision to side with Donald Trump in opposition to congestion pricing is one of the most shameful things I have ever seen from a democratic politician.

he’s literally screwing over his own constituents who are benefiting from less traffic and better transit

Additionally there are loud calls to cut up California into smaller states. A northern and southern split, or a giant 6-9 state split.

The state of Jefferson is well known in Northern California, and is heavily politically different from the rest of the state.

It’s a dead giveaway that people don’t see Canada as a real place with its own internal political structure.

I’m not sure if people outside the country realize but this has *really* rattled Canada.

This is insane. Musk, the world's richest man, owner of the most influential political messaging platform, and a de facto government member and top ally to the president, is accusing a journalist of being a criminal, because she reported on one of his racist DOGE staffers. This is fascist behavior.

Katie Miller, 33 Spokesperson In December, during the transition, Trump named Miller, who served in the first administration as a press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, as one of the first members of DOGE. She is the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. After reports that DOGE personnel accessed internal USAID data, Katie Miller defended the group, saying that “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”

Stephanie Holmes, 43 Human Resources Holmes is running human resources at DOGE, according to government workers who have been in meetings with her. A former lawyer with Jones Day, a firm that frequently represents Trump, she was previously the chief people officer at Oklo, a nuclear energy company chaired by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. She also ran her own HR consulting firm, BrighterSideHR, which advised companies to pursue “non-woke” approaches to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Brian Bjelde, 44 Senior Adviser Connected to: Office of Personnel Management Musk link: Vice president of people operations at SpaceX Bjelde is a longtime SpaceX employee who’s spent more than 20 years at the company, according to his LinkedIn profile, where he’s had a variety of jobs, including as managing director of the “food services group.” He previously worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He’s been referred to in press reports as a “top DOGE Lieutenant,” working at OPM to slash head count. CNN previously revealed that Bjelde had informed OPM staff of a plan to cut 70% of the agency’s workforce. The New York Times reported that Bjelde helped Musk cut staff at Twitter following its takeover.

Anthony Armstrong, 57 Senior Adviser to the Director Connected to: Office of Personnel Management Musk link: Worked on Musk’s purchase of Twitter Armstrong is a technology banker at Morgan Stanley who worked on Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter — since rebranded as X — in 2022. He has been given an influential role at OPM, which handles personnel issues across the federal government. Since Trump took office, OPM has spearheaded the new administration’s efforts to dramatically reduce the federal workforce and roll back telework and remote work policies.

So much attention has been paid to Elon's college-age DOGE bros.

But @propublica.org's roundup of 20+ members of Musk's demolition crew shows that it's largely comprised of alleged adults, including Katie Miller (wife of Trump whisperer Stephen Miller)

projects.propublica.org/elon-musk-do...

Damn can Fox just move on? Could the organization have been better when he started? Sure. But he caused some of it.

They granted him the trade he wanted. Just move on dog, no need to tweet about it.

Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been unleashed on federal agencies. ProPublica is attempting to document who is working with him and what they are doing.

New: @propublica.org is tracking who's in Musk's DOGE crew. 20+ names so far including some that haven't yet been reported.

🚨 The Trump administration is attempting to seize power beyond what the Constitution allows—giving Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, unchecked influence.

As a federal scientist, expert, or civil servant, you have rights. Don’t let them bully you.

These resources can help: act.ucsusa.org/4hqSJoz

A second Mitch McConnell has hit the ground

Trying to have fun and keep routine is so hard given everything going on in the US right now.

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

5/20

#Books #BookSky #BookChallenge #BlueskyBooks

Somehow I’m shocked every day how they find the worst people imaginable.

RONALD REAGAN (1988): We should be aware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends, weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world—all while cynically waving the American flag.