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

Trump's comments are terribly sad. Ukraine's "cards" are its people's commitment to fight for their freedom. Its cards include the support of democratic people everywhere, including Americans. We Americans have to intensify our efforts to support Ukraine. Congress, get in the fight.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Will we soon find Senate Democrats and a few Republicans working to enact legislation reversing some executive orders or setting limits on presidential power but facing a Republican filibuster to kill that legislation? One can only hope we get that far.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

David Boren was a true public servant. A champion of campaign finance reform, Mandela, and sane national security policy. A very good university president. Smart, unassuming, a scholar. Sad that a scandal ended his public life.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

A few old thoughts about Mitch McConnell. stevesnotes.substack.com/p/note-9-mcc...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Time to replay John McCutcheon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_J9...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Did not know this!

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

submitted 4 days ago • 249 comments

When a president & those around him are known to be a compulsive liars, even by his backers, will we believe him when it matters? Our condition is far more dangerous than it was w/ Covid in early 2020. There are fewer truth-tellers left high in govt and we know it.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Is anyone tracking presidential messages to Congress that provide notification of the appointment of persons serving in acting positions under the Vacancies Act? (Let alone the 30-day advance notification requirement for IGs.) Not finding them.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

It’s very simple. #DontAbandonUkraine

submitted 6 days ago • 16 comments

1/Not quite. Art I, Sec. 4: "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators." So...

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

Resist. Let the AG or DAG sign the motion and appear in court.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Essential reading from @crampell.bsky.social , as always

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

The basic idea that the Federal Reserve is “independent” (because Fed governors can’t be removed before their long and staggered terms end) rests on the precedent established in Humphrey’s Executor.

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

@normornstein.bsky.social is right. Senate Democrats can do much more, even if the immediate policy consequences are not great. Schumer, take the lead or stand aside. contrarian.substack.com/p/donald-tru...

submitted 12 days ago • 10 comments

Dems can be positive--promise support for omnibus/CR that includes language asserting cong'l power of the purse, reasserting & strengthening the terms of the Impoundment Control Act, funding USAID, DOE, & CFPB, protecting IDC agreements (as in 2017), & denying funding for deferred resignation pgm.

submitted 13 days ago • 3 comments

Exactly right. A significant under-the-radar story is Vance's likely reconciliation rulings and the difficulty of overturning them.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Where are the university presidents' voices on research and indirect cost cuts? Board chairs? Med school deans? And the deans of a myriad of social science programs with NIH grants? Surely, NSF is next.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Only 60% of Repubs (& leaners) agree that DT picks good advisers or respects democratic values; 55% agree that DT acts ethically in office. Yet, 84% approve of the job Trump is doing. A chunk of Repubs give little weight to having good advice, adherence to democratic values, or ethical behavior.

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

The Trump Administration's list of censored scientific terms that get NSF grant proposals flagged contains "women” and “female”, but no mention of “men” or “male.” There is “black” and “indigenous” on this list, but no “white.” The only identity not censored is mine. youtu.be/dHXbpj1Z3UU

submitted 16 days ago • 56 comments

This initial message from the AG to DoJ lawyers is the “constitutional radicalism” advocated by Vought. We might also mention the DC Bar oath—“I will demean myself uprightly and according to law; and that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America.” ___________

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

Word police reach NSF: skywriter.blue/pages/did:pl...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

submitted 20 days ago • 1330 comments

We have had blanket holds before (see Tuberville holds on military promotions). If Republican choose not to honor holds, it merely chips away at the Senate's informal norms a little more.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Precisely. PR campaigns must be far different than anything from the Gingrich era. The confirmation process is a minor matter for a prez whose DOGE knocks off the top layer of civil servants. Filibustering is meaningless when everything meaningful will be packed into a reconciliation bill.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

A constitutional cataclysm. The Foreign Asst Act of 1961 & the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 establish the USAID as its own agency within DOS; it cannot be "folded" into other DOS offices or its funding w/o cong'l action. No executive order can undo that statutory authority.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

When I was a Hill staffer in 2009, a Dem trifecta was trying to pass universal healthcare. In response, Senate GOP released a memo detailing all of the tactics they in the minority could use to delay the effort as much as possible. I'm recirculating that 2009 GOP memo here. Take inspiration from it.

submitted 21 days ago • 1308 comments

The potential harm and cruelty here is incalculable.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Who has created a super PAC to fund quick-response PR efforts in response to Trump actions?

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Though the Justice Dept has deleted information about its Jan 6 prosecutions from its website, a federal judge has issued an order listing and chronicling all of the cases and prison terms Here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

submitted 22 days ago • 387 comments

Everyone concerned about data loss right now should learn about the End of Term Web Archive, which I believe has been working on preserving federal websites for the past 8 months. The dataset you fear has been lost may well be here Just an incredible project. Thank you to everyone involved

submitted 23 days ago • 26 comments

Department of Transportation orders all personnel to "identify and eliminate" every order, directive, rule, regulation, policy, notice, guidance document, funding arrangement, or program that even mentions climate change, diversity, or environmental justice www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.go...

submitted 23 days ago • 158 comments

You know how the Trump admin blocked publication of the CDC's weekly morbidity and mortality report, which until now had been released every single week since 1952? Turns out last week's report would have included 2 important new studies on bird flu transmission. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

submitted 24 days ago • 47 comments