skull trumpet
@skulltrumpet.bsky.social
The Constitution grants Congress exclusive authority over DC but Congress has devolved some power to the city. Theoretically Congress could reclaim that power or maybe even grant it to POTUS. But it would require an act of Congress (assuming laws still matter). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distric...
District of Columbia home rule - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
August 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM
The Constitution grants Congress exclusive authority over DC but Congress has devolved some power to the city. Theoretically Congress could reclaim that power or maybe even grant it to POTUS. But it would require an act of Congress (assuming laws still matter). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distric...
it's this! bsky.app/profile/acab...
DC folks: be wary of the “ICE out of DC” protest PSL is organizing in the city tonight.
It is not supported by local immigrant justice groups.
Many local immigrants and immigrant justice groups have asked them to change the location because it puts the Latino community at risk. They said no.
It is not supported by local immigrant justice groups.
Many local immigrants and immigrant justice groups have asked them to change the location because it puts the Latino community at risk. They said no.
June 10, 2025 at 9:59 PM
it's this! bsky.app/profile/acab...
The Director of National Intelligence's FOIA website (which has reappeared after the entire site was briefly down) no longer has a reading room of released documents or links to its FOIA regulations which, were we to be picky, violates the EFOIA amendments of 1996.
Amazing timing.
Amazing timing.
Gabbard fires leaders of intelligence group that wrote Venezuela assessment
The director of national intelligence fired top officials weeks after their group wrote an assessment contradicting President Donald Trump’s legal rationale for deporting alleged Venezuelan gang membe...
www.washingtonpost.com
May 15, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Also, wild that the site was down for DAYS and the only(?) noticeable changes were to gut the FOIA page and nuke the IC Assessments and Reports page. If they're gonna roll back transparency (right after publishing their annual transparency report, no less), can't they at least be efficient about it?
May 15, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Also, wild that the site was down for DAYS and the only(?) noticeable changes were to gut the FOIA page and nuke the IC Assessments and Reports page. If they're gonna roll back transparency (right after publishing their annual transparency report, no less), can't they at least be efficient about it?
Great flag. Do we know of any other reading rooms that have been scrubbed? I'm worried this may not be the first (or last) example of this...
May 15, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Great flag. Do we know of any other reading rooms that have been scrubbed? I'm worried this may not be the first (or last) example of this...
sold. may shake out to be the best $75.69/year I've ever spent.
March 27, 2025 at 10:13 PM
sold. may shake out to be the best $75.69/year I've ever spent.
sorry, which other president immediately directed agencies to fire all their probationary employees?
February 14, 2025 at 12:52 AM
sorry, which other president immediately directed agencies to fire all their probationary employees?
do we know which IGs were dismissed beyond the few mentioned in the WashPo reporting?
January 25, 2025 at 5:27 AM
do we know which IGs were dismissed beyond the few mentioned in the WashPo reporting?
me. this is heinous.
January 24, 2025 at 2:02 AM
me. this is heinous.
Elsewhere, presidents (and by extension their appointees) can more easily steamroll agency staff. See e.g. Blinken testifying that State hadn't determined that Israel was blocking aid to Gaza despite his own experts officially determining, internally, that it was. www.propublica.org/article/gaza...
Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them.
Blinken told Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting” aid, even though the U.S. Agency for International Development and others had de...
www.propublica.org
January 23, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Elsewhere, presidents (and by extension their appointees) can more easily steamroll agency staff. See e.g. Blinken testifying that State hadn't determined that Israel was blocking aid to Gaza despite his own experts officially determining, internally, that it was. www.propublica.org/article/gaza...
Good question. One answer: Their decisions (to investigate things, share findings, make recommendations, etc.) aren't subject to presidential approval, so they can behave more independently and be more critical of the administration than can a normal agency.
January 23, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Good question. One answer: Their decisions (to investigate things, share findings, make recommendations, etc.) aren't subject to presidential approval, so they can behave more independently and be more critical of the administration than can a normal agency.
Weird critique. No agency, not even GAO, has the power to unilaterally decide to publish classified information that the original classifier doesn't want published. (Which is why lots of GAO reports on surveillance activities are classified too!)
January 22, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Weird critique. No agency, not even GAO, has the power to unilaterally decide to publish classified information that the original classifier doesn't want published. (Which is why lots of GAO reports on surveillance activities are classified too!)
OPM just dropped initial guidance on implementing this EO:
www.chcoc.gov/content/init...
Calls for DEIA offices to be closed and their staff put on administrative leave by COB Wednesday, and emails sent to staff asking them to report efforts to "disguise these programs"
www.chcoc.gov/content/init...
Calls for DEIA offices to be closed and their staff put on administrative leave by COB Wednesday, and emails sent to staff asking them to report efforts to "disguise these programs"
Initial Guidance Regarding DEIA Executive Orders | CHCOC
www.chcoc.gov
January 22, 2025 at 2:40 AM
OPM just dropped initial guidance on implementing this EO:
www.chcoc.gov/content/init...
Calls for DEIA offices to be closed and their staff put on administrative leave by COB Wednesday, and emails sent to staff asking them to report efforts to "disguise these programs"
www.chcoc.gov/content/init...
Calls for DEIA offices to be closed and their staff put on administrative leave by COB Wednesday, and emails sent to staff asking them to report efforts to "disguise these programs"
Fun fact: The fictitious surveillance technology used "Enemy of the State" helped inspire the US government's very real development of drone technology capable of surveilling entire cities, as chronicled by @writearthur.bsky.social in the great book "Eyes in the Sky."
longreads.com/2019/06/21/n...
longreads.com/2019/06/21/n...
‘Nothing Kept Me Up At Night the Way the Gorgon Stare Did.’ - Longreads
The Gorgon Stare, a military drone-surveillance technology that can track multiple moving targets at once, is coming to a city near you.
longreads.com
December 3, 2024 at 2:51 AM
Fun fact: The fictitious surveillance technology used "Enemy of the State" helped inspire the US government's very real development of drone technology capable of surveilling entire cities, as chronicled by @writearthur.bsky.social in the great book "Eyes in the Sky."
longreads.com/2019/06/21/n...
longreads.com/2019/06/21/n...
FWIW, I also prefer the term UAPs. We can use it to refer to all sorts of weird, unexplainable things (including but not limited to UFOs) and can do so without needing to make any presuppositions about the "things" in question (e.g., whether they're flying objects or something else entirely).
December 3, 2024 at 2:31 AM
FWIW, I also prefer the term UAPs. We can use it to refer to all sorts of weird, unexplainable things (including but not limited to UFOs) and can do so without needing to make any presuppositions about the "things" in question (e.g., whether they're flying objects or something else entirely).
In the US context, NASA and DOD reportedly adopted the term "UAP" to "avoid associations with past sensationalism" around the term "UFO."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unident...
I imagine similar thinking may have motivated the Brits' use of "UAP," but that's just a guess.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unident...
I imagine similar thinking may have motivated the Brits' use of "UAP," but that's just a guess.
Unidentified flying object - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 3, 2024 at 12:54 AM
In the US context, NASA and DOD reportedly adopted the term "UAP" to "avoid associations with past sensationalism" around the term "UFO."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unident...
I imagine similar thinking may have motivated the Brits' use of "UAP," but that's just a guess.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unident...
I imagine similar thinking may have motivated the Brits' use of "UAP," but that's just a guess.