Gray Kimbrough

Trump, Claiming Weak Jobs Numbers Were ‘Rigged,’ Fires Labor Official

For months, people have been asking me whether I still trusted gov’t data. My answer was always the same: The stats agencies faced longstanding challenges, some of which Trump was making worse. But there was no sign of political meddling.
I can’t say that anymore.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/b...

Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

Entrenched NIMBY politicians have been a huge drag on the Democratic party. Here in Montgomery County, Marc Elrich has made it clear that he sides with older homeowners even if it means a housing crisis for everyone else.

This NIMBYism has to go for Dems to have a path forward.

Today's article in the Post focuses on the homeowners loudly complaining about the possibility of allowing a few hundred housing units in Montgomery County, which has a population over a million.

Oddly, the reporter only mentions the age of a younger person with actual relevant expertise.

Looking through this DOJ lawsuit challenging California's cage-free egg law, I'm definitely wondering how many other times the DOJ has cited undergraduate student papers as the sole support for basic claims in court filings.

Wildly, the writer of this letter has made multiple posts complaining about housing costs while not addressing his own opposition to doing what's necessary to bring housing costs down: building significant amounts of denser housing. bsky.app/profile/rbre...

Your semi-regular reminder that Robert Reich fought hard against slightly denser housing for others near his house.

We could have improved bike and pedestrian infrastructure in American cities if, like Montreal, we shifted the planning perspective to incorporate that infrastructure wherever it's possible.

Instead, we have situations like in MoCo, where it takes over a decade to build a half-mile bike lane.

When I lived in Montreal 25 years ago, urban biking was rare. But much-improved bike lanes and a bikeshare system with impressive station density have changed that, and bike traffic backups are common.

This (poorly photographed) one in the Berri bike lanes stretched half a block in both directions.

All over the city, I saw signs like these. I think these show the very simple move that's improved bike infrastructure so dramatically: Montreal moved to a stance of including quality bike lanes essentially by default when improving streets that could remotely justify the investment.

It's paid off.

Eight year old riding a bike in Montreal in two-way bike lanes separated from car traffic by a concrete barrier.

I rented a bike for my eight year old, and he was about to comfortably ride in these lanes too. High-quality bike infrastructure like this opens up options for getting around--including with kids!--that aren't available in American cities.

The next morning, I went for a ride with my daughter and she picked up on how great it is to be able to rest your foot on that concrete median when stopped at a light.

We don't have many protected bike lanes like these in the DC area, but they're all over Montreal.

Common bike infrastructure in Montreal: two-way bike lanes separated from car traffic by a concrete median.

I guess July 4th is as good a day as any to talk about an area where Montreal is absolutely kicking the ass of every American city: incredible growth in bike infrastructure. My first night there I hopped on a bixi bike and rode almost entirely on separated lanes to get groceries.

I can confirm: it's fast. Three extracts downloaded so far.

This is the first flight I've been on with United's new fast wifi, so I'm taking full advantage by downloading @ipums.bsky.social extracts.

Today's reminder that things are so dumb right now and getting dumber: for anyone who forgot, the tax and spending bill really is called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

This was a beautiful afternoon at Glenstone.

Meanwhile, I can't imagine what would make someone think they should issue a statement like this.

Like many other federal workers, I have been leaning on my support networks the past several months.

I've been able to keep doing quality work while being an involved parent, but I know I've dropped the ball on communications about other things. We're just doing our best here.

I have a running conversation with a friend along the lines of "things can't get any dumber, can they?" but we just keep adding to it. Today, I learned that this is in the latest budget proposal.

Yeah. I looked around for a sign with that number on it but there wasn't one near the elevators, so I called Montgomery County and told them I was in the Metro garage. They told me to leave.

It's frustrating that Metro Police refused to log it even with broken glass at the scene and pictures.

Frustrating that I returned from work to my car in the Wheaton Metro garage to find that a window was smashed, and someone had rifled through my glove compartment.

WMATA Police refused to even take a report of the damage since I left the garage, as the MoCo non-emergency operator told me to do.

It seems bad that immediately after gaining access to NLRB systems, someone in DOGE passed login information to someone in Russia who then quickly attempted to log in.

TFW you need a legion to repopulate the Earth after the societal breakdown you're working to cause

Current state

There's no reason to characterize the earlier moves of the BLM and ERS as something that "didn't always go smoothly."

The goal was to get most employees to quit, and this happened in both cases. The moves didn't save money, but that wasn't the point.

We don't have to repeat the sham justification.

Shame on anyone still pretending that proposals to move agency offices out of the DC area are in good faith.

We know that these proposals are intended to further gut the agencies and punish employees, most of whom can't simply move across the country with a few months' notice.

I'm on my way to the @ipums.bsky.social reception in DC, which will be the first evening econ/data/stats social event I've attended since karaoke at ASSAs in January 2020. Not much has happened since then though...