M3 Sweatt

The Senate Parliamentarian says Sec #70302 in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” cannot be part of reconciliation bill, per @marcelias.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/marc...

How to Protest Safely: What to Bring, What to Do, and What to Avoid If you’re planning to hit the streets, here’s what you need to know.

“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”

WIRED published and updated their guide to safe protesting with specific advice wrt rights and protections. #nokings

RIP Bill Atkinson

My son watched a YouTube retrospective on General Magic and asked if I knew any of the great people featured. I told him I did, and shared this with him.

Life moves pretty fast.

Tell Your Senator: The “Big Beautiful Bill” is Ugly & Corrupt Don’t be fooled. Behind the name is a thousand-page monster filled with corrupt, anti-democratic provisions.

I’ve written to my senators and so can you: use the new tool from @represent.us to send a letter to your senators now, asking them to reject the provisions inside the Bug Bill.

act.represent.us/letter/big-b...

Trump's budget would make it harder for US courts to enforce contempt charges against government Hidden provision in the "Big, Beautiful Bill" could upend the balance of power between the administration and federal courts that hold it accountable.

More on how this provision could interfere with the courts’ ability to enforce contempt charges against the government, via @snopes.com

“If you follow Senate procedures, it’s nonpartisan parliamentarians who make that decision… I don’t think any argument that could ever be made that this [provision] impacts mandatory spending or revenues — I just don’t see it getting into the Senate bill.“
- Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)

Yes, and now the bill and this sits with the Senate. "The biggest hurdle the provision faces is that it likely doesn’t meet the requirements of the Byrd Rule, which prohibits passing a budget bill that includes anything “extraneous” or not related to fiscal spending."

Call out to @murray.senate.gov @cantwell.senate.gov to stary on the issue and call out for the removal of Section #70302 from the Big Bill Act.

Congresswoman Laura Friedman @friedman.house.gov and 20 members of Congress demanded the removal of Section #70302 from the Big Bill Act. Full text of the letter to Speaker Johnson can be found here:
friedman.house.gov/media/press-...

Layoffs: A Time to Act, Not Just Sympathize | M3 Sweatt OK, while everyone is incredibly supportive of their colleagues impacted by a layoff, I suspect this is not going to be popular with some folks back at the office. Layoffs are tough, and with Micros...

IMHO, these leaders can and should prioritize rehiring experienced and dedicated employees - using the same strategic and transformative technologies and advanced AI - to match people with the more than 1,000 published, promoted open roles. And act before these people are cut loose in a month.

And to that I added a second which included asks and recommended actions for two groups of folks: first, to hiring managers (many who are reaching out directly to those impacted) and second, to Microsoft leaders.

To that group, I challenge them to do more to match people with open positions.

I’ve long respected Microsoft as a place for innovation, collaboration, and shared purpose. But to see so many mentors, peers, and friends forced to navigate another unexpected and frankly unnecessary transition was tough.

So I shared a few top of mind thoughts, which clearly resonated with folks.

A message to those impacted at Microsoft Layoffs are never just numbers on a spreadsheet. They represent people and families: careers disrupted, business and personal severed connections, and plans and futures are suddenly uncertain.

A couple of weeks ago, I returned to post on Linkedin after an 18 month hiatus. I’d decided I’d said what I wanted to say about work, and need to detach from that in retirement.

But I was wrong: the recent layoffs at Microsoft resulted in a deluge of messages from those impacted and hit a nerve.

A Terrible Idea Dean Chemerinsky discusses the reconciliation bill’s provision that would restrict federal courts’ authority to hold government officials in contempt for violating court orders

And read this from Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law
www.justsecurity.org/113529/terri...

As such, I’m writing and calling my senators in DC today along with Senate majority leader, John Thune, and other key senators who support the core concept of co-equal branches of the federal government, which includes the judiciary and legislative.

www.congress.gov/members/find...

4/4

Sec 70302 would undermine this judicial tool by prohibiting the courts from enforcing a contempt citation if a security bond hadn’t been provided when the injunction or restraining order was issued.

To do this would weaken the judiciary and open up to even more chaos than we’re seeing today.

3/4

While this is intended to be a budget bill, this provision has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility: it’s an erosion of the independence and authority of federal courts and a challenge to the rule of law.

2/n

I just read through the new HR 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” available on Congress.gov. www.congress.gov/event/119th-...

Read it.

And in particular, read Section 70302, “Restriction on enforcement” in the House Rules Committee Print 119-3 (link here).

Cc @maddow.msnbc.com

1/n

This from Tren Griffin. +100

“My 93 year old father gave me permission to reveal a family secret: You create incredible value without any monetary cost, fiat or otherwise, by being kind to people, being trustworthy, showing up for causes you believe in and standing up for what's right.”

It appears that the use of Signal has been a regular occurrence in this administration, and may run afoul of federal records guidelines (esp given Signal’s auto-delete features). It seems people are looking for ways to communicate where there’s no ‘paper’ trail: thehill.com/regulation/c...

Listening to @NPR today and history around Dorothy Thompson’s commentary leading up to, during, and after World War II, and immediately thought of @maddow.msnbc.com in modern times.

Photograph of a cappuccino maker with a large cup of coffee in front next to a bottle of Baileys chocolate liqueur

My new favourite rare-earth metal is Neodymium, a hard, slightly malleable, silvery metal that quickly tarnishes in air and moisture.

Sounds just like my retirement, but with a splash of Baileys. 😹

The Steps That Can Achieve Real Government Efficiency It makes sense that the Trump administration is looking for ways to cut spending. But the way they’re going about it is all wrong.

So, I’m not an efficiency expert much less one with federal government experience. But having worked throughout my career in tech (much at a fairly successful company) I learned that when you need expertise to find areas of improvement, you hire experts.
www.governing.com/management-a...

Just as in Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’, where books are burned by ‘firemen’, the DOGE team have certainly demonstrated their overall lack of technical understanding and inefficiency expertise in a space that the GAO has traditionally focused.

Pausch said “We don’t beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully.”

So, have fun for as long as you can get away with it.

I’m reminded this week of seven things that mattered most to Pausch:

• Always Have Fun
• Dream Big
• Ask for What You Want
• Dare To Take a Risk
• Look for the Best In Everybody
• Make Time for What Matters — Time is all you have
• Let Kids Be Themselves

The Last Lecture Amazon.com: The Last Lecture: 9781401323257: Pausch, Randy, Zaslow, Jeffrey: Books

If you’ve not read it (or need a refresher), check out / buy The Last Lecture by Pausch (amzn.to/3QnbUTO), and watch the eponymous videos (lnkd.in/gnijut2V).

While it began in the 90s and later popularized at Microsoft in the mid 20teens, Pausch clearly espoused a growth mindset.

M3 Sweatt on LinkedIn: #advice #lastlecture #time #dst #growthmindset “The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.” — Randy Pausch This weekend it’s time once…

“The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.”
-- Randy Pausch

A few thoughts on time and priorities:
www.linkedin.com/posts/m3swea...

The Secret to Building Resilience The ability to bounce back from setbacks is often described as the difference between successful and unsuccessful people. Resilience has been shown to positively influence work satisfaction and engage...

More on the interactions that foster #resilience, and tips to help identify and strengthen the #connections that can boost our resilience from @kardillon.bsky.social, Rob Cross, and Danna Greenberg on HBR.org
hbr.org/2021/01/the-...

Resilience isn’t a trait. It’s a skill.

Resilience isn’t something you’re born with: it’s something you learn, practice, and improve. Our connections help us be more resilient when we run into major challenges in our lives.

Resilience is a muscle. Developing it is a workout.