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josterman.bsky.social

@josterman.bsky.social
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Reposted by @josterman.bsky.social
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
WOW. They grabbed her off the street even while the State Department itself said that she had done nothing wrong.
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Ali Velshi @velshi.com · 13/04/2025
Trump’s off-again, on-again tariff strategy proves ‘Frat boys’ are running the economy, says @jeffsonnenfeld.bsky.social. If you really want to boost manufacturing, J. Nicole Bivens Collison says, you first start with investing in it, not the White House’s tariff-first strategy. #Velshi
msnbc.com
‘Frat boys’ running economy no way to boost American manufacturing
The purported goal of Donald Trump’s broad tariffs is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. But the on-again, off-again way in which the White House has approached tariffs could prevent companies from investing in the United States, says Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. J. Nicole Bivens Collinson, a former assistant chief negotiator for the U.S. trade representative, says the tariff-first strategy is a mistake: “You examine which manufacturing industries you want to try to establish, then allow the tariff to come in, because if you just tariff on the finished product, you're going to ruin any investment industrial manufacturing.”
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Amy Klobuchar @amyklobuchar.com · 11/04/2025
I’ve known Chris Krebs as a nonpartisan, deeply respected public servant who made sure that our 2020 election was safe. He told the truth, and now President Trump is going after him. It's shameful and wrong.
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Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Amazing @annamerlan.bsky.social story about the AI slop factories making heroic Trump content. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
AI slop farms are churning out fake heartwarming videos about Trump figures
Machine-made YouTube videos are racking up views while fooling the MAGA faithful.
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 11/04/2025
“Donald Trump is playing the biggest game of Red Light, Green Light since ‘Squid Game.’ ” Senator Elizabeth Warren talks to @johncassidysays.bsky.social about Trump’s tariffs and his midday reversal on Wednesday.
newyorker.com
Elizabeth Warren Is Trying to Stop “The Dumbest Financial Crisis Ever”
The Massachusetts Democrat argues that Trumponomics is wrecking the American economy.
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Here’s the best way to understand what’s happening. Trump genuinely wants to impose a 19th century mercantilist model that would crash the economy and destroy the global trading order but the idea is just so colossally stupid and destructive, he can’t actually do it. So we get this.
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
You set the house on fire, watched it burn, and then lost your nerve and put it out. You now have a partially burned house. Great job.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
This is the email just received by IMLS staffers placing them on paid administrative leave for up to 90 days. “Please understand that this action is not punitive but rather is taken to facilitate the work and operations of the agency.”
To: ALL IMLS Employees
From: Director of Human Resources
Re: Administrative Leave for IMLS Employees
This is to inform you that you are being placed on administrative leave (i.e., non-duty
paid status) starting Monday, March 31, 2025, up to a period of 90-days. You will be on administrative leave with full pay and benefits. This administrative leave is not being done for any disciplinary purpose.
While you are on administrative leave, you are not permitted on IMLS premises. I regret that such directions are necessary, but we must safeguard legitimate IMILS interests and systems.
If you wish to enter IMLS premises for official IMLS business, you must first contact me to arrange your visit.
While you are on administrative leave, OHR will handle your time and attendance. Your
email will be suspended. You can reach me at my desk number, 202-653-4728, or via email:
adotson@imls.gov
Please understand that this action is not punitive but rather is taken to facilitate the work and operations of the agency. Your pay and benefits will not be affected and will continue during this period.
Please contact me if you have any questions about this letter.
Sincerely,
Antoine L. Dotson
Antoine L. Dotson
Director of Human Resources
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
SCOOP: DOGE notified the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) today that the entire staff is being put on administrative leave effective immediately, I’ve learned from an agency source. They’ll be cancelling huge swaths of grants/contracts and starting a Reduction in Force (RIF).
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Andrea Shaw @shaws-light.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
#BlueSkyArtShow #Sunlight #silhouette #foxes #foxoftheday #nature #photography #backlit #naturephotography #altnationalparks #color
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Miri @miri-popiri.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
#BlueSkyArtShow #Sunlight #photography #nature
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ru 🪷 @ruinedfinery.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
📷 Udo Schlottmann #AlphabetChallenge #WeekKForKinetic #nature #art
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Owl Daily @owldaily.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Northern Saw-Whet Owl - The Cutest Ball of Feathers You’ll See Today. 📸 francoispotvin #Cuteowl #Birds #Nature
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Lorraine Inglis @lorraineinglisd.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Sunlight reflections ☀️🧡💙 #BlueSkyArtShow #Sunlight #Devon #photography #landscapephotography #nature #EastCoastKin
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Liz @phetch.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Not a surprise, but confirmation, for the #ParkChat peeps. Ireland nature pic in honor of #StPatricksDay today 💚
A view from a cliff bluff in Kerry County Ireland, looking down at a sandy beach with blue water and people swimming and walking on the sand. Rolling green hills begin at the tops of the dark rock cliffs and rise up under blue skies with a few puffy white clouds.
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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
The big stakes here are not immigration law but the rule of law itself. At the same time the Alien Enemies Act was playing out, the Trump administration apparently deported a professor at Brown University’s medical school in direct contravention of a federal court blocking her expulsion.
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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
The major news of the weekend was the rapid-fire series of events following President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act that culminated with the WH chortling over defying a court order blocking deportations and ordering outbound flights to return. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Trump’s Open Defiance Of Federal Courts Is Now At Hand
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This...
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MS NOW @ms.now · 17/03/2025
“Watching this is chilling”: The detention of Mahmoud Khalil Mahmoud Khalil is a Columbia University graduate student abducted by the Trump admin. without a warrant and without any charges of a crime. WATCH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdb7...
youtube.com
The detention of Mahmoud Khalil is a flagrant assault on free speech
YouTube video by MSNBC
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Two stories today about different people wrongly thrown off Social Security, one marked dead, the other seems to be because he was born outside the U.S. on a U.S. military base. First effects of DOGE on SSA. This will get worse. www.wkrn.com/news/nationa... www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
The Trump-Musk Regime is reportedly planning to cut as much as 50% of the IRS workforce. Make no mistake: this will starve the government of revenue by making it easier for the rich to evade taxes — which the top 1% already do to the tune of $163 billion a year. Hello?
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Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
"As soon as Trump was inaugurated, the department’s processing of disability rights complaints ground to a halt ... That has left students—including a 12-year-old boy with autism and epilepsy who’s been unwillingly assigned to remote schooling—without recourse"
vox.com
America’s kids are already suffering under Trump’s education policies
What Trump and DOGE want to do to the Education Department, explained.
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Tim Osborne Photography 🍁 @timosborne.ca · 03/03/2025
"Air Brakes" It is amazing to watch the way in which owls can control their flight with such precision. #wildlife #birds #owls
A Great Grey Owl pulls its wings back to slow down as it approaches landing. The background is covered with snow.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
BREAKING — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just announced the closure of major regional offices in Philly, LA and Chicago, per email shared with me. “5 alarm fire,” SEC employee tells me. Full email text:



To: All SEC Employees
From: Ken Johnson, Chief Operating Officer
Date: March 3, 2025
Subject: RE: Update on LARO, PLRO and CHRO Leases

As some of you might be aware, the General Services Administration (GSA) has been involved in a process across federal agencies to review office space leases and potential options for reducing space and related costs. GSA has now decided to end all federal leases goverment-wide where GSA can do so unilaterally and where the agency is not providing direct services to the public.

As part of this decision, GSA recently informed us it has decided to teminate the building leases for the Los Angeles Regional Office (LARO) and the Philadelphia Regional Office (PLRO). GSA retains the sole authority to terminate the leases because they manage those leases on our behalf. To be clear, these lease terminations are not associated with any reorganization or reduction in force plan regarding SEC personnel, but rather apply solely to SEC space.

As part of the initiative described above, GSA also notified us they intend to terminate the lease for the Chicago Regional Office (CHRO). The SEC has responded to the Administration and pointed out that CHRO's lease terms are different iand do not allow for unilateral GSA termination without significant financial penalties. We will keep you posted as we learn more about GSA's decisions.

The SEC will be working with GSA on the process for finding new space for these offices. We understand that GSA aims to have the space exited by the end of August 2025 for PLRO and CHRO, and the end of September 2025 for LARO. It is the SEC's intent that if new office locations are not ready by the time the GSA-initiated lease terminations take effect, then the affected SEC staff will be placed on full-time telework.

We will provide more information as we learn it.

Thank you.
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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Here is your Monday Midday Mantis. This was a small, quick species, only 2-2.5 cm. long. I like the dark spot on the head, which I thought made it look 3-eyed. (Borneo) 🐙🌿👁️👁️👁️
A closeup photo of  a mostly green mantis on green leaves, with black in the background. The mantis is seen in side to three-quarter view, but has its head turned to face the camera. It has dark antennae with a yellow band about halfway along the length, black and tan forelegs, a yellow "lip," and brown and yellow compound eyes. There is a dark spot on the forehead between the compound eyes which looks a little like a third eye.
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Andrew Freedman @afreedma.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
NEW: The Trump admin has informed NOAA that two buildings that are critical for weather forecasting will have their leases canceled. If this comes to pass, it's a really big deal. Includes weather fcst nerve center in College Park, Md.: www.axios.com/2025/03/03/d...
axios.com
DOGE moves to cancel NOAA leases at critical forecasting centers
NOAA's nerve center of national weather forecasting is on a lease cancellation list.
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Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · 03/03/2025
Thanks to President Trump’s and Elon's decision to put the CFPB on ice, $100 million meant to help scammed borrowers is now stuck in limbo. This is the opposite of lowering costs.
reuters.com
Consumer watchdog payouts in limbo as agency defanged by Trump administration
The Trump administration's decision to put the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on ice has left a $100 million pot of money intended for borrowers allegedly harmed by the student loan servicer Navient sitting in limbo, according to an advocacy organization.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Medicaid covers... -40% of births nationwide -50% of kids with special needs -72 million people in total Remember this as Republicans move to gut the program to finance tax cuts that will overwhelmingly go to the richest 1% of Americans.  "Party of family values."
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Bornabrit1 @lindarothwell.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
This....
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Josh Busby @busbyj2.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
I can't think of a faster way to undermine the country than simultaneously firing government workers, cutting scientific research, rolling back protections on public health & environment, & cutting essential services. It's like the US was defeated in war and is being occupied by a hostile enemy.
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Amy Klobuchar @amyklobuchar.com · 28/02/2025
The weather service? The ones that predict blizzards, tornados, hurricanes… Maybe when you’ve got a bunker and security that doesn’t matter to you, but for the rest of us… Trump fires hundreds working on weather forecasts, satellite data, radar systems www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
washingtonpost.com
Trump fires hundreds working on weather forecasts, satellite data and radar systems
The terminations come days before a potential severe weather outbreak in the southeastern U.S. — and just months ahead of the next Atlantic hurricane season.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
The U.S. has two tsunami warning centers, both operated by NOAA. Employees were terminated from these centers today. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center covers Hawaiʻi, and now it is less safe to be near the beach. www.tsunami.gov
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Tim Osborne Photography 🍁 @timosborne.ca · 28/02/2025
A Northern Hawk Owl surveying the field below in search of his next meal. #wildlife #birds #owls
A Northern Hawk Owl stands on a rusted out post and looks downward.
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Tim Carl @carltf.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
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kate conger @kateconger.com · 28/02/2025
How Elon Musk planned for DOGE: Our investigation found that he raised the idea in 2023, becoming fixated on gaining insider access to federal systems. By Dec., he chose USDS as a landing place, and future DOGE members began applying for jobs there. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/u...
nytimes.com
How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy (Gift Article)
The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of government agencies.
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Amy Klobuchar @amyklobuchar.com · 24/02/2025
New tariffs equal higher costs for farmers. I joined members of the Minnesota Farmers Union to highlight the problems these tariffs are causing and how the USDA grant freeze has left farmers in limbo.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
DOGE recommended firing workers at: -FDA, which oversees Neuralink -FAA, which oversees SpaceX -USAID, which probed Starlink -CFPB, which oversees Tesla's financing arm and a potential payment platform on X. "Conflict of interest" is a severe understatement.
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Tim Carl @carltf.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
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Tim Osborne Photography 🍁 @timosborne.ca · 21/02/2025
Happy Friday everyone! Here's a coyote out for a walk on a cold winter's day. This shot was actually taken from the opposite side of a freeway as the coyote wandered along the edge of a nearby Provincial Park. #wildlife #coyote
A Coyote walking on the snow towards the viewer.
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Tim Carl @carltf.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
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Peter Morley ♿️ @petermorley.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
I'm in. February 28, 2025!
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