nicholashandler.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Why would someone pay $5 million to come to a country that is rapidly destroying its state capacity and also reintroducing measles?

submitted 5 hours ago • 0 comments

Emphasizing again that anyone who responds to "that's illegal" with some variant of "lol all law is meaningless you're a sucker for thinking that matters" is actively doing PR for Trump and helping him. Nihilism about the law is the best way to make sure that the rule of law dies a quicker death.

submitted 11 hours ago • 90 comments

DOGE has announced a total of 45 Social Security field office closures--so far. SSA has 1,200 field offices where people can receive in-person help getting benefits, updating records, enrolling in Medicare & more. They served 30M applicants & beneficiaries in 2023 — nearly 120K per day.

submitted 12 hours ago • 52 comments

SSA employee to me re: 50% staff reduction: "Can say unequivocally that such deep cuts to SSA, which is already at historically low staffing, will cause significant to extreme degradation of services, very likely including checks missed and individuals dying before their claims can be processed."

submitted 14 hours ago • 111 comments

RFK Jr is reportedly going to sack his vaccine advisory committee. His power to slant the committee, however, is limited by rule: Agency chiefs must replace fired members w/ a “balanced” committee under 41 CFR § 102-3.60… /1 www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...

submitted 17 hours ago • 3 comments

Massive encroachment by Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section - makes clear dissenting views will not be published I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know

submitted 18 hours ago • 687 comments

Also time for judges to deny any presumption of regularity. Presume irregularity

submitted 18 hours ago • 0 comments

There are already statutes directing the Executive to spend money. They’re ignoring them. That’s the whole reason we’re having this showdown?

submitted 20 hours ago • 0 comments

Merit Systems Protection Board swiftly upholds finding that firing of some probationary employees was illegal. Case is about six employees but could affect many more. www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

submitted 1 day ago • 15 comments

The juristocracy opposer has logged on

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

In the last Trump administration, courts were willing to look through obvious pretexts when reviewing excecutive action. (e.g., the census case). I wonder if that will be the case this time around.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Remarkable resignation letter from the Justice Department's chief information officer in the immigration review division — a disabled veteran. Obtained by @propublica.org's Brett Murphy:

submitted 1 day ago • 297 comments

So is it a deep state when you’re not allowed to know the name of the person who is in charge of the entire US government?

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

WASHINGTON (AP) - 21 civil service employees are resigning from Elon Musk's DOGE, refusing to "dismantle critical public services."

submitted 1 day ago • 23 comments

I don't even know where to begin in explaining why this shouldn't fly as a properly executed reduction in force (RIF). "The president said so" is not a legally permissible reason under 5 CFR 351.201.

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

This from @jvl.bsky.social is one of the most insightful columns about the relationship of the tech industry to politics that I've read in a long time. Very smart. It's paywalled, but you should really subscribe to Bulwark these days.

submitted 2 days ago • 12 comments

This is potentially a huge deal, since it is an internal appeals board laying out criteria saying some probationary firings were illegal, e.g. for citing performance rationales with no evidence. Could rippled out to include many more employees. www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

submitted 2 days ago • 24 comments

So if no one does this, they’re going to fire all 2.4 million civilian federal employees tomorrow? Come on.

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

I have a paper coming soon that is, in part, about how we should see the civil service as an extension of civil society, rather than a force alien to it. That theory is vindicated when the civil service does funny and cool stuff like this to clown on the world's most annoying guy.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Agh! Federal employees are already extensively evaluated through formal performance reviews.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Let's not go crazy. It's not like DOGE is doing something really important like adjudicating patent disputes.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Worth noting also that public sector labor law often accounts for this difference. Strikes are illegal, elected officials retain extesnive management rights re: policy formation, there is extensive oversight of bargaining by all three branches of government. It's the very opposite of lawless!

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

There are rules governing performance evaluations for civil servants. You cannot just run an email through Chat GPT.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

NEW - Rep. Mark Alford tells fired KC federal workers ‘God has a plan’ at hostile town hall Folks, I've been covering politics for a dozen years in Kansas and Missouri and this is probably the most intense, angry town hall I have ever seen www.kansascity.com/news/politic...

submitted 2 days ago • 518 comments

Worth re-emphasizing that this position is massively unpopular with American voters, and shows just how far the administration’s policy has been contorted to appeal to a small clique of online groypers. A stain on the US, and one that I think will come back to haunt the administration.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

This is a very interesting read. I've always thought of 'pro-rule-of-law' and 'anti-corruption' as the same message, but campaigning against corruption arguably resonates with voters in a uniquely powerful way. Reminds me that the epithet that most stuck to Nixon was not 'dictator,' but 'crook.'

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

To me, a Nazi salute means, "I want to murder your family." There can be no irony about it: It puts deep anger and hatred in my heart to see it done and I will never forgive anyone who justifies or minimizes it.

submitted 3 days ago • 248 comments

Imagine writing an email so insane that Kash Patel has to come out and clarify that it’s illegal.

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

The word “acting” does not appear in the story — but that’s what Patel will be. These 3345(a)(2) (using a PAS for another agency) actings — Rubio, Bessent, Patel — are higher than in the past for these top roles.

submitted 4 days ago • 5 comments

It may not be cool or hip in some circles, but we legitimately do need a massive amount of people to run for office. Flood the school boards, councils, county seats, state legislatures, Congress, etc. Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.

submitted 4 days ago • 2206 comments

Following a loud public outcry about job cuts at the National Parks Service — and a relentless media campaign from outdoors enthusiasts across the country — it looks like the Trump administration has blinked. via @jackdolan.bsky.social

submitted 5 days ago • 25 comments

I'm sorry, what?

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Among those Trump and Musk fired at the FAA: - Lawyers who help keep drunk or reckless pilots out of the skies - Air traffic control support staff - Employees who track potential new flying hazards like cranes - Staffers who medically clear pilots to fly www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

submitted 5 days ago • 107 comments

This is right. And it's also worth emphasizing that the process is not optional. Under existing SCOTUS precedent (Roth, Sindermann), civil servants have a 5A right to due process before major personnel actions. SCOTUS has said that statutory procedures satisfy that right (Arnett v. Kennedy).

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Oh my god just elect one guy who’s not Mayor Quimby

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Patel is an incredibly dangerous nominee. But in order to accomplish anything, he will need tons of cooperation from a rank-and-file that hates him, from state and local law enforcement, and from courts. There are lots of ways to slow him down by refusing to abet lawlessness.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Very excited to have this guy in charge of airplane safety and Treasury payments!

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments