dbonowitz.bsky.social
Buildings. Earthquakes. Public policy.
Functional Recovery <--> Community Resilience.
Giants baseball. Princeton hoops.
contact: djbonowitz (with a 'j') at gmail
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Got an answer to last night's question. Ugh. Cornell game next week is now must-win.
See if this sounds familiar (yeah, I know nobody reads these): fell behind, made a great comeback, then in a blink we're down 20 again. Dartmouth turned their season around with 3's, and it showed tonight. Oy.
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Here's the thing though: this is NOT required by "required by the Administration's Executive Orders."
Best we can hope is that this is some kind of malicious compliance: do the same work, avoid the red flag words. Join the resistance, even as you wear the yellow star.
bsky.app/profile/anna...
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Pretty sure I spotted the great Abbey Hsu in the crowd, but it was Henderson (playing w/ 4 fouls) who hit the 3-pt dagger, and Riley Weiss unstoppable w/ 34 pts in a 64-60 loss to Columbia.
So the home W streak ends at 30, but all we want is to play the Lions 1 more time ...
bsky.app/profile/dbon...
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Sadly, I think the move here is to keep your season tickets in order to support the Center staff, then no-show for the Jan 6 Choir, etc.
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Heh. When I banged out this reply this morning, I had misread the op to mean that Musk wanted staff to confirm what DOGE & POTUS had done and required of them.
Clear now that he wants them to report on themselves. Lots of great suggestions on bluesky. I especially like:
bsky.app/profile/jben...
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Free idea for federal employees:
1 - I supported and defended
2 - the Constitution of the United States
3 - against all enemies
4 - foreign
5 -- and domestic. 🇺🇸
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Me too. It was produced like two years ago, but practically every scene has jaw-dropping resonance with today's situation.
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Spot on. What I find interesting is that his tariff hero McKinley famously lost to the populist Bryan. That T passes himself off as McK to business and Bryan to maga is the essence of his con.
Serious recommendation for those new to the subject (incl me): www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjpY...
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Easiest possible bar for Chief Justice Roberts to clear.
Any bets on whether he clears it?
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1. Fired a bunch of people.
2. Got high, did interview.
3. Waved chainsaw.
4. Shadow-banned ex-girlfriend.
5. Prepped for next week's firings.
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I hear you, but a vocal, angry, wealthy, Israel-obsessed, and hopelessly deluded minority is still "lots" to me.
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Sure, but the first level of review doesn't have to read anything. Just the lack of a reply will be enough to generate thousands of "you're fired" emails. Which is why it will be up to agency managers to do the right thing and protect their staff from the whole bullshit exercise.
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There are lots of American Jews in the maga movement, including some of my relatives. Will they cross even this line?
Or are they going to make a bs claim that they're reappropriating harmful language and imagery once used against them ...
Looking at you, Bibi.
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This is a positive way to think about what's happening. We didn't ask for a draconian reboot, but if they insist ... That said, I confess I'm having a hard time imagining the mechanics of it. (Positive is not my strong suit.)
Are you imagining something that is not premised on D wins in 2026?
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Came here 100% to see if such a thing existed. Thank you.
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Exactly.
bsky.app/profile/dbon...
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Follow the lead of Maine Gov Mills.
The head of each agency or division should reply "I speak for every staff member of this agency. We got your email. We absolutely understand what you've done. We're already in compliance. Have a nice day."
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As I've been shouting for a month, it's agency managers who need to hold the line -- starting with a complete reading of whatever "the email" says.
Every EO included some hedge like "as allowed by law," but managers AND THE MEDIA routinely missed (or ignored) that and over-complied.
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The question here is not how agency staff should or might respond to a bs email, but how agency managers will enforce compliance because nobody near the top of the org chart is willing to say fuck off.
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I assume you mean Grp 3, in which case the answer depends on what you mean by "trying." To me, they never had a good strategy for doing that. The 2024 campaign was too much doomcasting, not nearly enough "He lied to you" (i.e. treating T like a failed incumbent).
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This was clear a year ago, when instead of working to prevent Johnson (maga w/ horn rims) from becoming Speaker, he instead sat in the chamber and wrote a clever alliterative speech that changed nothing.
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Yep. There are 3 groups of T supporters (below).
If Group 2 does not denounce this (they won't), they give permission to Group 3 to deny, or even forgive, the worst excesses of Group 1.
bsky.app/profile/dbon...
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idk. Ds have long had an advantage in issue polls. But Rs have an advantage in campaign polls*, and THAT is the gap we -- and our candidates -- need to close.
* Because of info asymmetry & synergy. R candidates lie, and Fox reports it. Fox finds an attractive message, and Rs campaign on it.
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- The ship is righted (?) with a win over Harvard. Still need the W tmrw v Dartmouth
- Byriel, in a slump for a month, got minutes, hit shots
- If he stays at Harvard, Fr Robert Hinton is gonna be a handful
- Lesmond did some trash talking early, then the Tigers took turns making him look bad, lmao
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I would not have thought to mine these newsletters, but your posts are really illuminating about how they glom onto a message and manufacture consent!
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100%
bsky.app/profile/dbon...
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There are times to step forward and times to keep your head down, and I won't fault anyone for trying to elude a crooked cop in order to keep doing good.
We've seen over-compliance, but also some hints of malicious compliance, sometimes both from the same agency: bsky.app/profile/dbon...
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Well done. I've forwarded this with a recommendation to do the same, to the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.
(Come to bluesky, EERI!)
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Prof Verstynen,
Can your friend say who is doing this word search censorship? Is it within DOE or one of the Muskitos?
The EOs are execrable, but the over-compliance by every agency is just as bad in its own way.
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An excellent piece, yet many reposts are suggesting this is the end of code development.
To be clear: code development will continue, and FEMA will still reference & even require the new codes. But FEMA, which has an influential voice and a heavy stake in the outcome, will not participate directly.
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What's the point of a red line anyway if the majority of House members and Senators are color blind?
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There are times to step forward and times to keep your head down, and I won't fault anyone for trying to elude a crooked cop in order to keep doing good.
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jfc, the fact that he didn't leave you a paper trail and didn't commit his crimes in public like T does not make him "inscrutable."
He would make or break any "rule" he needed to gain and hold power, and that's about as scrutable as it gets.
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And yet, I hope we never lose sight of the fact that T is a symptom, a pustule. The disease is the modern Republican party's cynical, selfish, dishonest, and reckless vision of American democracy, and Mitch McConnell and Newt Gingrich were its avatars.
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Runaway #1 on my list of the most destructive and dangerous Americans of my lifetime. #2 is Gingrich, so I guess I'm not surprised that Newt has an entry in the same Politico piece calling McConnell "a towering giant." Trumpism is the symptom. McConnell and Gingrich are the disease.
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(a) is exactly correct. Asymmetry is real. I've felt this way since the Gingrich years, but it was McC stealing the scotus seat that made it finally unforgivable.
Even through the T years, my mantra has been: It's the Senate, stupid.