iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 17/09/2026

This is continuing to move fast and it’s doing so in ways that seem to confirm the worst. Not going to do a play-by-play at the moment because: 1) I’m at work; 2) I don’t have all the info; and 3) I’m also working on next steps. But I’ll try to summarize when I can.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 16/09/2026

React is all but the exemplar of that complexity. This isn't an anti-React thread, but it is a "use the simplest tool that will work" thread, and that just ain't React.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 16/09/2026

If I'm right, it also won't work for most sites. Current USWDS is just HTML, CSS, and JS, and it's all stuff you can get working by copying and pasting code and dragging a few files onto a server. You can skip most of modern web dev's complexity if you want. You can't do that with a react app.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 16/09/2026

I think they'll continue to call it USWDS to co-opt the brand as well as for perceived compliance reasons, but it won't have been vetted by accessibility experts, and it won't have been battle-tested by use across huge swaths of the .gov space.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 16/09/2026

I haven't been at GSA since last year so I don't have inside info here, but I strongly suspect that they're going to hollow out USWDS and replace it with some React/ShadCN-based replacement. It'll be the private equity husk version of USWDS.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 16/09/2026

Since everyone has been kicked out, one guy appears to be throwing a ton of AI at the USWDS repo. Mostly closing old issues and pull requests with AI-generated legalisms about how closing the issue doesn't mean it's fixed etc.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 15/09/2026

There are people who care deeply about delivering good government services working on figuring out what to do next, but you should know that this is happening. You should know how this administration is trying to make it harder for you to access the services and information to which you're entitled.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 15/09/2026

This is personal for me, since I used to be on the USWDS team, and I used USWDS every day for years before that when I was at 18F. Also the person responsible for removing everyone from repo is the person who implemented the order to kill IRS Direct File at Treasury—truly a world-class ghoul.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 15/09/2026

In case you're not familiar, NDS are the ones who make those terrible, bloated, inaccessible brochureware websites for various fascist projects. Those sites are vibe-coded garbage. bsky.app/profile/marg...

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 15/09/2026

It looked like USWDS might have been spared from the executive order creating the National Design Studio, but after NDS recently established a beachhead inside Login.gov, that hope quickly evaporated, and today's activity all but proves they're coming for USWDS.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 15/09/2026

It's had a lot of near misses in the DOGE era, but in the last few hours, the new head of GSA's Technology Transformation Service removed all of the open source community contributors from USWDS's github org.

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 15/09/2026

The US Web Design System is load-bearing infrastructure for thousands of government websites. It makes it easy for small teams with no resources (i.e. most .gov teams) to make usable, accessible websites that work for everyone. Today, it's as close as it's ever been to being replaced with AI slop.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

I had thought so already, but my time as OMB General Counsel made me certain that the misnamed Paperwork Reduction Act costs more than it’s worth. open.substack.com/pub/factorys...

open.substack.com

The Paperwork Reduction Act Doesn’t Reduce Paperwork

Left to their own devices, many government agencies would likely expand needless forms, reporting requirements, and surveys.

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Corey Rayburn Yung @coreyryung.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

This isn't just a casual observation. Fascism scholars have long made this point. It's why calling them "weird" was a more effective strategy than talking about the prices of eggs. Fascism is an aesthetic political movement - you need to make people feel embarassed and horrified by it.

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Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

A long-awaited update of federal employment data shows crippling staff reductions in some federal agencies and offices: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

nytimes.com

220,000 Fewer Workers: How Trump’s Cuts Affected Every Federal Agency (Gift Article)

New data offers the first clear view of the impact of the buyouts and firings.

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Ben Schwarz @benschwarz.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Toss a rose into the grave of HIG. Here's a study on icons in MacOS Tahoe. It's quite an abomination. Apple really just said "fuck my shit up", didn't they? tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-i...

Screenshot from article showing 12 different icons for "new" across different apps in MacOS Tahoe

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P(aul) Frazee @pfrazee.com · 04/11/2025

One of the huge perks of working at a software company is, when there's something about the product that bothers you personally, you can get your hands dirty and find out why it's basically impossible to get fixed

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Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 15/12/2025

This tweet from Big Balls says the new “Tech Force” website is their first using the “America Design System.” Here are just a few reasons why that sucks. 🧵

A tweet from Big Balls, linking to techforce.gov reads: Our first website using the new America Design System! Building a framework for beautiful, performant, secure and inexpensive websites to be very easy to build in Government.

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

On this Trans Day of Remembrance, we remember the bright and courageous trans people whose lives were stolen by hatred. Their absence is felt across our city. We will honor them by building a New York where every trans person can live safely, fully and freely.

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Jason Santa Maria @jasonsantamaria.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

📢 New post: I wrote about improving at designing type in fits and starts while working on a lowercase for my font Citywide. Progress isn’t always quick, but I’m really enjoying the make mistakes 🔁 get a little better loop. jasonsantamaria.com/blog/learnin...

jasonsantamaria.com

Learning Curves — jasonsantamaria.com

Assorted thoughts on slowly improving at designing type while working on a lowercase addition to Citywide.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

The Social Security Administration used to have an incredible communications arm, including even a film unit. This was crucial in helping people understand the program, and how it would work. From 1936, 1939. www.ssa.gov/history/puba...

Poster from 1936 says: Join the March to Old Age Security, with a long line of happy people

Poster with picture of old man holding pipe: More Security for the American Family (1939)

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Alt18F @alt18f.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

The administration has pulled the plug on IRS Direct File, a tool that helped eligible taxpayers file for free. This decision comes despite Direct File’s immense popularity with its users.

nextgov.com

Direct File won’t happen in 2026, IRS tells states

The free service that allowed taxpayers to file online directly with the IRS was used by hundreds of thousands of taxpayers in 2024 and 2025, who gave it high marks — although tax prep companies and R...

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Alexis Lloyd 🏳️‍🌈 @alexislloyd.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

So basically, “If you want us to feed you, you have to let us take away your healthcare.”

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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 30/10/2025

A new .gov domain was registered yesterday: techforce.gov. It resolves to an auth page that identifies it as part of the National Design Studio. Trump and Musk eliminated 18F and destroyed USDS, and now the feds are scrambling to rebuild the capacity that they destroyed.

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king ned ludd 🇨🇦 @grumble.social · 01/09/2025

happy labour day

a chart showing productivity climbing for 50+ years, while hourly compensation flatlines in the 80s, and union membership drops consistently since the 60s.

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stephanie @sclawr.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Designer friends: I'm working on some content around using statistics and data analysis for design work, but I need to get some more information and out of my own brain. So I've made a survey, I'd be grateful if you took it: forms.fillout.com/t/iW9aNFoLrTus

forms.fillout.com

Designers: What do you know about data analysis and statistics?

Made with Fillout, the best way to make forms, surveys and quizzes your audience will answer.

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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

FORTUNATELY, for everyone we have a fun way to tell your House rep that you think Bobby Jr is a quack and has to go… For $3 we will hand deliver (by a man in a duck costume) a rubber ducky with a message to “impeach the quack” to your rep! QUACK-O-GRAMS! act.standupforscience.net/fundraising/...

act.standupforscience.net

Help power the Summer Fight For Science movement!

Donate now to help mobilize the fight for science and democracy. Every contribution matters!

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Cyd Harrell @cydharrell.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

your civics education probably included very little about courts - this is a super useful article about systems you're most likely unfamiliar with!

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John @johngoodman.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

realistic Star Trek

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

I have never seen so many public servants protest the mismanagement of a government. Trumpists will point to this as proof of the deep state, but the reality is that these are professionals who are desperately trying to get the public to understand how bad things are.

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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 28/08/2025

I was the executive director of U.S. Open Data, a non-profit that I created at the behest of the Obama White House. I worked as one of the nation's leading experts in open data. Putting open data on the blockchain is a profoundly stupid idea that fails nearly every test of good open data.

gizmodo.com

The White House Is Going to Put Government Statistics on the Blockchain (Yeah, We Don't Know Why Either)

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 28/08/2025

i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.

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WordPress @wordpress.org · 27/08/2025

📹 Can't attend WordCamp US this year? No worries! You can still join the conversation online and watch many exciting presentations about WordPress. Catch the live streams here: www.youtube.com/WordPress/str... #WordPress #WCUS

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Natalie Alms @almsnatalie.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Say it louder for the people in the back!! Beat reporting matters, and beat reporting on government agencies and implementation matters. That's why I love my job

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Mel Choyce @melchoyce.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Have fun at WCUS y’all. Wish I was there 🥲

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Alt18F @alt18f.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Our democracy is not a brand. Our country is not a retail store. At 18F, our inspiration was (and is) the American people.

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Astra ⎔ @astrra.space · 25/08/2025

morning read

a boox poke4 lite showing:
an anime cyborg girl with a smartphone
the title "Effective Torment Nexus Design in C++"
the subtitle "A modern approach"
the publisher "O RLY?"

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

We’re not seeing an empirical dispute of crime stats or a debate about what constitutes “crime under control. We’re seeing federal military occupation of US cities. What the targets have in common is not crime rates, it’s voting against the president’s party. Journalistic malpractice.

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Alt18F @alt18f.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

“Improving our nation through better design” is certainly important work: we know this, because it’s exactly what we were doing when DOGE eliminated 18F entirely.

whitehouse.gov

Improving Our Nation Through Better Design

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose and

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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 25/08/2025

"Website design is my passion." americabydesign.gov

<span data-word-id="1-word-7" class="text-text-dimmed" style="transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;will-change:color">If</span>
</span>
<span>
<span data-word-id="1-word-8" class="text-text-dimmed" style="transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;will-change:color">you</span>
</span>
<span>
<span data-word-id="1-word-9" class="text-text-dimmed" style="transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;will-change:color">said</span>
</span>
<span>
<span data-word-id="1-word-10" class="text-text-dimmed" style="transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;will-change:color">Trump,</span>
</span>
<span>
<span data-word-id="1-word-11" class="text-text-dimmed" style="transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;will-change:color">you're</span>
</span>
<span>
<span data-word-id="1-word-12" class="text-text-dimmed" style="transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;will-change:color">not</span>
</span>
<span>
<span data-word-id="1-word-13" class="text-text-dimmed" style="transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;-webkit-transition:color 0.7s ease-in-out;will-change:color">wrong.</span>
</span>

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/08/2025

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

Photo of DOGE staffer Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old white man in a blue pullover, carrying a black backpack.

Photo of 53-year-old Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi. He is sitting, wearing white pants and shirt with a brown vest.

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rstevens 👻💨 @rstevens.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

one way or another, a sword would fix me

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Ethan Marcotte @ethanmarcotte.com · 21/08/2025

From day one, they telegraphed that procurement capture was the goal: push out the workers and specialists who understood the technology’s (severe) risks and limitations, then open up the spigot of tax dollars to favored contractors.

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Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

textbook administrative burden - meaning the strategic creation of burdens that will prevent people accessing services they need and are legally supposed to have. It's instantly obvious that email's not a great crisis technology. cc @pamherd.bsky.social @donmoyn.bsky.social

wired.com

FEMA Now Requires Disaster Victims to Have an Email Address

Workers at FEMA worry that demanding disaster survivors access services using email could shut out people without internet connectivity from receiving government aid.

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Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

People are being kidnapped into unmarked vans by masked police. There is a genocide happening in Palestine. Literal billionaires have taken over our government. And all Democratic leadership can do is send us another fundraising text?

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

I decided to look at all 66 prosecutor elections this fall. Why? Prosecutors have huge power over sentencing, charging, second chances, and even immigration implications. Here's everything you need to know, from East to West Coast. New from me:

boltsmag.org

Your Guide to the 2025 Prosecutor Elections - Bolts

Most of November's prosecutor races feature just one candidate, as usual. But key races will shape the politics of criminal justice, from Philly to Seattle — plus a wild card in New Jersey.

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