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shannonbond.bsky.social
Shannon Bond
@shannonbond.bsky.social
14K followers 1.7K following 410 posts
🎙️NPR correspondent covering how technology, politics, power, & influence intersect. also reporting on DOGE & fed govt upheaval. send tips on Signal to shannonbond.01

https://www.npr.org/people/763523701/shannon-bond
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shannonbond.bsky.social
and if you were wondering: "Wikipedia content can be copied, modified, and redistributed if and only if the copied version is made available on the same terms to others and acknowledgment of the authors of the Wikipedia article used is included"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
The text of Wikipedia is copyrighted (automatically, under the Berne Convention) by Wikipedia editors and contributors and is formally licensed to the public under one or several liberal licenses. Most of Wikipedia's text and many of its images are co-licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA) and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). Some text has been imported only under CC BY-SA and CC BY-SA-compatible license and cannot be reused under GFDL; such text will be identified on the page footer, in the page history, or on the discussion page of the article that utilizes the text. Every image has a description page that indicates the license under which it is released or, if it is non-free, the rationale under which it is used.
October 28, 2025 at 5:06 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
Wikipedia tarot page: "Tarot (/ˈtæroʊ/, first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi or tarocks) is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play trick-taking card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, tarot games spread to most of Europe, evolving into new forms including German Grosstarok and modern examples such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. Tarot is commonly found in many countries, except in English and Spanish speaking countries where tarot games are not as widely played, It is normally found in the form of specially designed cartomantic decks used primarily for tarot card reading, in which each card corresponds to an assigned archetype or interpretation for divination, fortune-telling or for other non-gaming uses." Grokipedia tarot page: "Tarot (/ˈtæroʊ/, first known as trionfi and later as tarocchi or tarocks) is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play trick-taking card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, tarot games spread to most of Europe, evolving into new forms including German Grosstarok and modern examples such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. Tarot is most commonly found in many countries, especially in English and Spanish speaking countries where tarot games are not as widely played, in the form of specially designed cartomantic decks used primarily for tarot card reading, in which each card corresponds to an assigned archetype or interpretation for divination, fortune-telling or for other non-gaming uses."
October 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
other examples: apple, Genesis (band), tarot
Wikipedia apple page: "An apple is the round, edible fruit of an apple tree (Malus spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (Malus domestica), the most widely grown in the genus, are cultivated worldwide. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia before they were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have cultural significance in many mythologies (including Norse and Greek) and religions (such as Christianity in Europe). Apples grown from seeds tend to be very different from those of" Grokipedia apple page: "An apple is the round, edible fruit of an apple tree (Malus spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (Malus domestica), the most widely grown in the genus, are cultivated worldwide. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii , is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia before they were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have cultural significance in many mythologies (including Norse and Greek) and religions (such as Christianity in Europe). Apples grown from seeds tend to be very different from those of their parents, and the resultant fruit frequently" Wikipedia Genesis page: "Genesis were an English rock band formed at Charterhouse School, in Godalming, Surrey, in 1967. The band's longest-lasting and most commercially successful line-up consisted of keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford and drummer/singer Phil Collins. In the 1970s, during which the band also included singer Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett, Genesis were among the pioneers of progressive rock. Banks and Rutherford have been the only constant members throughout the band's history. The band were formed by Charterhouse pupils Banks, Rutherford, Gabriel, guitarist Anthony Phillips and drummer Chris Stewart. Their name was provided by former Charterhouse pupil and pop impresario Jonathan King, who arranged for them to record several singles and their debut album From Genesis to Revelation in 1969. After splitting from King, the band began touring, signed" Grokipedia Genesis page: "Genesis were an English rock band formed at Charterhouse School, in Godalming, Surrey, in 1967. The band's longest-lasting and most commercially successful line-up consisted of keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford and drummer/singer Phil Collins. In the 1970s, during which the band also included singer Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett, Genesis were among the pioneers of progressive rock. Banks and Rutherford have been the only constant members throughout the band's history. The band were formed by Charterhouse pupils Banks, Rutherford, Gabriel, guitarist Anthony Phillips and drummer Chris Stewart. Their name was provided by former Charterhouse pupil and pop impresario Jonathan King, who arranged for them to record several singles and their debut album From Genesis to Revelation in 1969. After splitting from King, the band began touring, signed with Charisma Records and shifted to progressive rock with"
October 28, 2025 at 5:01 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
my favorite footnote
The following exchange occurred at this point: Mr. Japson: They’re all GSA employees… we’ll have to get back to you. HSGAC Staffer: When you say you’ll get back to us on the DOGE information, do you all just not know who’s on the agency DOGE team, or are you not sure what you can share with us right now? Mr. O’Connell: I’ve been here two weeks, I can get you the information, I’m more than happy to. GSA has yet to provide staff with this information. General Services Administration, Site Visit with Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Majority and Minority Staff and Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works Majority and Minority Staff (May 28, 2025).
September 25, 2025 at 5:39 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
very normal
Additional details about the sixth floor of GSA from the Committee Staff site visit: In an office labeled “Chief of Staff,” there was a large ping-pong table set up along with a sofa and a whiteboard with cloud computing architecture diagrams scribbled on it.1 Bedrooms outfitted with IKEA furniture occupied most of the executive suite, including an adjoining room on the Administrator’s office that is normally the Administrator’s dining room.2 A kitchen included a dedicated fridge stocked with Celsius energy drinks and Muscle Milk.3 The windows in one room were crudely covered with black trash bags.4 Many other conference rooms and offices in the executive suite stood empty. GSA officials told staff that as far as they were aware, these rooms were not serving as the primary residence of any GSA employee.5 However, the unstaged bedroom in the Administrator’s dining room showed signs of long-term use.6 The twin beds were unmade. Smartphones, tangles of cables, a hot plate for cooking, and what appeared to be small personal items surrounded them on the floor and nearby ledges. On the floor next to one bed was a large computer console that was covered with a fleece blanket.7 Mr. Japson was unable to identify whether this computer console was GSA-issued.8 There was also an adjoining closet full of clothes.9
September 25, 2025 at 5:37 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
inside DOGE's GSA bedrooms:
Ultimately, Senate staff saw just one bedroom in the executive suite corridor, perfectly tidied, with one queen bed, a wardrobe and a big screen TV.113 GSA officials leading the tour seemed unfamiliar at times with the executive suite space or what it would look like on the day of the congressional staff visit.114 In particular, when staff were in the Administrator’s office, Mr. Japson was initially surprised when staff discovered the makeshift bedroom directly adjoining the Administrator’s suite and he remarked, “What’s in there?” The room contained two twin beds on the floor, with sheets unmade.
September 25, 2025 at 5:29 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
in addition to alarming detail on what DOGE is doing with Social Security data, the Senate Dems report also gives a hilarious peek inside DOGE's workspace at GSA
www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/u...
Highlights • Staff visited the executive suite of GSA, which was occupied by a handful of DOGE staff and segregated from the rest of the agency by armed security guards. • GSA officials were unable to answer basic questions about which employees were working in the suite, what their roles were, and who at the agency oversees their work. Some officials were clearly seeing parts of the DOGE setup for the first time. • GSA prevented staff from taking photos or interviewing GSA employees during the visit, failed to answer follow-up questions, and refused a staff request for a follow-up visit. • The Acting Administrator does not work out of the Administrator’s office – instead, DOGE programmers do amid stacks of laptops of unknown origin. • GSA officials attempted to prevent staff from seeing cloud architecture diagrams in the DOGE workspace. • DOGE has installed a Starlink network at GSA, potentially allowing them to circumvent agency IT oversight as required under OMB guidance and agency policy, and creating a potentially significant cybersecurity risk.
September 25, 2025 at 5:25 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
so, of course:
A post from White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson showing she is using a paragraph from NPR's story as her X.com account header photo
August 19, 2025 at 9:21 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
our story also got into the WH's very aggressive approach to media, including their attempts to discredit one of our sources as partisan based on a $30 donation he made to ActBlue 7 years ago. It's all part of the same playbook: trolling critics, owning the libs, everything as snark.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson didn't directly respond to NPR's questions for this story. She sent an emailed statement saying: "The White House consistently posts banger memes," and went on to mock NPR. In response to NPR's questions about the agency's social media posts, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin called the inquiry "deranged and delusional." She continued: "If the media needs a history lesson on the brave men and women who blazed the trails, forded the rivers, and forged this Republic from the sweat of their brow, we are happy to send them a history textbook." White House officials have also taken to pointing out publicly available political donations to Democrats made by sources quoted in news coverage in an apparent effort to discredit them as partisan. Last month, White House communications director Steven Cheung criticized a different Washington Post story that quoted a drone warfare expert about the vulnerability of the U.S. to drone strikes. "The 'expert' they cite throughout the story is a major Democrat donor and longtime sufferer of Trump Derangement Syndrome," Cheung wrote on X, posting a screenshot of Federal Election Commission records of the individual's political contributions. White House spokesperson Jackson used the same tactic ahead of publication of this article. After learning that Milner, the College of Charleston professor, would be quoted, Jackson pointed out that public records show that seven years ago he made two donations totaling $30 to ActBlue, which fundraises for Democrats. "In addition to noting that this so-called expert is a Dem donor, here is a statement from me," Jackson wrote in her email sharing the White House's comment for this story. Millions of Americans donate to political candidates each cycle. Approximately 15.6 million people donated to congressional and presidential races in 2020, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan research organization that tracks money in U.S. politics.
August 19, 2025 at 9:20 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
i know everything is hair on fire at the moment but, in case you missed it, this is bananas and clearly has alarming implications well beyond ignoring the TikTok ban.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/u...
But some legal experts consider Mr. Trump’s action — and in particular his order’s claim, which Ms. Bondi endorsed in her letters, that he has the power to enable companies to lawfully violate the statute — to be his starkest power grab. It appears to set a significant new precedent about the potential reach of presidential authority, they said. “There are other things that are more important than TikTok in today’s world, but for pure refusal to enforce the law as Article II requires, it’s just breathtaking,” said Alan Z. Rozenshtein, a University of Minnesota law professor who has written about the nonenforcement of the TikTok ban, referring to the part of the Constitution that says presidents must take care that the laws be faithfully executed. In her letters, Ms. Bondi went far beyond that. Because of Mr. Trump’s order, she said, tech firms that acted contrary to the statute were breaking no law, even in theory, and the department was “irrevocably relinquishing” any legal claims against them — including under future administrations. The companies, she wrote, “committed no violation of the act” and “incurred no liability under the act” during the periods that Mr. Trump had declared a suspension of the law. She also told them they may continue to provide services to TikTok “without violating the act, and without incurring any legal liability.” Essentially, legal experts said, Mr. Trump is claiming a constitutional power to immunize private parties to commit otherwise illegal acts with impunity.
July 4, 2025 at 5:06 AM
shannonbond.bsky.social
June 18, 2025 at 12:52 AM
shannonbond.bsky.social
so here’s a promoted post i recently got on reddit from what seems (?) to be an official State Dept account
u/ TravelStateGov Promoted LPT: If you're thinking about traveling to a country with a Level 4 travel advisory-don't. Curious about what a Level 4 travel advisory could mean for your trip? We'll break it down. The U.S. State Department issues Level 4 Do Not Travel advisories when there's a high chance of you experiencing: • Kidnapping • Wrongful detention • Terrorism • Political instability • Outbreaks of infectious disease and in places where the U.S. Government may not be able to provide assistance. In short, just don't. It's not worth the risk. Before booking any trip abroad, we strongly encourage you to visit travel.state.gov for Department of State guidance on the safety of your destination. tl; dr Do. Not. Visit. Level. 4. Countries.
June 18, 2025 at 12:43 AM
shannonbond.bsky.social
what happens when you lay off your entire communication staff and a whole bunch of other people too
When CDC publications have gone out, some have been delayed or missing information. A recent release of CDC data regarding the prevalence of HIV in the U.S. cautioned that it "does not include data on PrEP coverage," referring to medication taken by individuals to prevent HIV infection. "CDC is unable to resume PrEP coverage at this time, due to a reduction in force affecting the Division of HIV Prevention (DHP)." "All the points of contact that we generally rely on to communicate with the American people have either been eliminated or dramatically reduced," said Griffis, the former CDC communications director. Removing all the CDC's web developers, graphic designers and social media staffers simultaneously caused a problem. The CDC was suddenly locked out of its main social media accounts, said three people close to the situation. "The passwords to those accounts were kept on a password protected Word doc," said one worker at the CDC. "And that Word doc was inaccessible for anyone left, because all of the people that could have opened that document were fired."
May 21, 2025 at 1:35 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
PBGC is a federal agency created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to protect pension benefits in both single-employer and multiemployer private sector pension plans - the kind that typically pay a set monthly amount at retirement. If your plan ends (this is called "plan termination") without sufficient money to pay all benefits, PBGC's insurance programs will pay for the benefit provided by your pension plan, up to the limits set by law. The agency’s two insurance programs are legally separate and operationally and financially independent. The Single-Employer Insurance Program is financed by insurance premiums, investment income, and assets and recoveries from failed single-employer plans. The Multiemployer Insurance Program is financed by insurance premiums. Special financial assistance for financially troubled multiemployer plans is financed by general taxpayer money.
May 19, 2025 at 8:56 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
“The turmoil is leaving many retirees, disabled claimants and legal immigrants who need Social Security cards with less access or shut out of the system altogether, according to those familiar with the problems.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.
And the phones keep ringing. And ringing.
The federal agency that delivers $1.5 trillion a year in earned benefits to 73 million retired workers, their survivors and poor and disabled Americans is engulfed in crisis — further undermining its ability to provide reliable and quick service to vulnerable customers, according to internal documents and more than two dozen current and former agency employees and officials, customers and others who interact with Social Security.
March 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
here’s the email; the misplaced quotation mark at the end is in all the copies i’ve seen
Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets describing what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. Going forward please complete the above task each week by Mondays at 11:59pmET. Please do not send links, attachments, or any classified/sensitive information. If all your activities are classified or sensitive, please write “all my activities are sensitive”.
March 1, 2025 at 5:21 AM
shannonbond.bsky.social
New: The Treasury Department names Musk ally Tom Krause fiscal assistant secretary. That means he's in charge of the Treasury payments system. Website just updated today:

home.treasury.gov/about/genera...
screenshot of Treasury Dept website showing Tom Krause named fiscal assistant secretary
February 7, 2025 at 5:05 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
well, these are the 4 speakers...
screenshot of Twitter Spaces showing hosts and speakers are Elon Musk, Joni Ernst, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Mike Lee
February 3, 2025 at 5:45 AM
shannonbond.bsky.social
yeah this is what he did at Twitter except there he could just fire the ppl he wanted to get rid of

www.reuters.com/world/us/mus...
A team including current and former employees of Musk assumed command of OPM on Jan. 20, the day Trump took office. They have moved sofa beds onto the fifth floor of the agency's headquarters, which contains the director's office and can only be accessed with a security badge or a security escort, one of the OPM employees said. The sofa beds have been installed so the team can work around the clock, the employee said. Musk, a major donor to a famously demanding boss, installed beds at X for employees to enable them to work longer when in 2022 he took over the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter. "It feels like a hostile takeover," the employee said. The new appointees in charge of OPM have moved the agency's chief management officer, Katie Malague, out of her office and to a new office on a different floor, the officials said.
January 31, 2025 at 8:26 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
“Some of the world’s most vulnerable populations are already feeling President Trump’s sudden cutoff of billions of dollars in American aid that helps fend off starvation, treats diseases and provides shelter for the displaced.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/w...
A world map showing some examples of the impact of the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze.
January 31, 2025 at 2:53 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
the inevitable consequence of government by tweet www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...
The Justice Department seemed to be at cross purposes with the White House as Mr. Schwei urged the judge to let the matter rest. During the hearing, the states introduced into evidence a social media post by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, in which she claimed the motion rescinding the Office of Management and Budget memo was “NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.” “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo,” she wrote. “We can’t cross-examine the tweet,” the judge joked.
January 29, 2025 at 11:21 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
One scientist at the agency said this week has been the hardest of their working lives, worse even than working during the Covid response. They said it has been a week filled with confusion and chaos, trying to respond to different orders, understand what they mean, and worry that they and their co-workers could lose their jobs, in addition to trying to do research in the midst of the disruption.
January 25, 2025 at 10:23 PM
shannonbond.bsky.social
sharp @maxread.info identifies a critical but overlooked motivation for Zuckerberg’s latest political metamorphosis open.substack.com/pub/maxread/...
January 11, 2025 at 12:26 AM
shannonbond.bsky.social
irony is dead

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/t...
Others said Mr. Zuckerberg was throwing current and former employees under the bus despite their efforts on content moderation. As upset employees posted about the changes on internal message boards, human resources workers quickly removed the posts, the people said, saying they broke the rules of a company policy on community engagement. Meta put the policy in place in 2022 to keep contentious social issues out of the workplace.
January 8, 2025 at 5:52 AM
shannonbond.bsky.social
this is an important point. this week i wrote about the legal strategy of one of the biggest anti-vax groups, RFK Jr's Children's Health Defense: www.npr.org/2024/12/03/n...
Vaccine advocates, with less money on hand than the better-funded antivaccine advocates, see an uphill battle to defend vaccination in courts, legislatures, and the public square. People are rarely inclined to celebrate the absence of a conquered illness, making vaccines a hard sell even when they are working well. While many wealthy people, including potion and supplement peddlers, have funded the antivaccine movement, "there hasn't been an appetite from science-friendly people to give that kind of money to our side," said Karen Ernst, director of Voices for Vaccines.
December 6, 2024 at 5:07 PM