We’re getting snowed but I don’t mean the weather.
Posts in: DC
Tuesday’s rally outside the Treasury Department building, along 15th Street NW between F and G.
Yesterday outside the Department of Labor
The blowback is going to come in all forms
A neighbor, whose org is largely funded by USAID, shared that they laid-off 70% of their staff and they who remain are there to close-up shop. The web site is reduced to a splash page. They helped farmers farm better and more sustainably, adopting new technology and adapting to new environments, enabled locally-controlled economic development and community banking, implemented clean water and sanitation programs, and facilitated medical services capacity building.
USAID shutdown reportedly styming anti-human trafficking direct service efforts
I worked for nearly a decade with the organization that currently runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline. I do not know the current specific details, but I believe it and am saddened by this news. I and my team supported some efforts to engage with some of the international partners alluded to if not mentioned in this reporting. I have all kinds of feelings about the space (and Polaris's unfortunate support for some very flawed legislation in the US), and I do not have an uncritical view of USAID, but it pains me to understand the many ways people just trying to help people are being crippled, seized-up and disrupted.
Snow day!
Alternative Capitol Hill sledding location at Eastern High School with the U.S. Capitol locked-down for election certification.
I hear the ghost of Ed Sullivan: “We have a very big shew today!”
50F
This is the first 50f morning for me this year that sustained long enough for me to be awake, not have immediate intervening responsibilities, such that I can meet it on the stoop with coffee in hand. If I controlled the global thermostat every morning should be 50f, but… never mind seasons—2 decades of notable climate shifts means there will be many fewer of these in my life at this latitude than I’d have assumed.
The Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts can suck it. The vertical playground at Swampoodle is one of The Childe’s favorite places to play.
It is near several places we make regular errand runs to and, in addition to climbing fun, it provides him a vantage point to observe the train traffic coming in and out of Union Station (The Childe is a trainspotter, although he does not yet know this term).
Like many park areas with something interesting for different groups, it is a small oasis in the city. We need more such things for all of us. (We also need the city to keep the drinking fountains in clean, working order in all the parks. I did just put in a 3-1-1 request with regards to Swampoodle’s drinking fountain.)
This says nothing about me (except to significantly explain my stint of SAHD duty in the latter case), but I am proud to know people directly involved in each of these efforts:
- San Francisco Moves to Lead Fight Against Deepfake Nudes — San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu is a former colleague (and let’s be clear, boss— a co-founder, and CFO and CEO over time) of mine.
- My partner has been directly involved in facilitating this work: Biden administration reveals Medicare negotiation drug discounts
I don’t have to let go of my broader and deeper political critiques to appreciate some of this progress.