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Good news. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/u...

Listening to this now. open.spotify.com/episode/3ShR...

79th review request of 2025

You must perform at the Center where we illegally changed the name.

Lovely remembrance. I'm planning a canoe trip to remember my dad.

Pitchfork had this on top 100 songs of 2025. Been playing it on repeat. The tone and lyrics are terrific. Break up or make up song? open.spotify.com/track/0dZG4y...

Merry post Xmas. Neighbor’s setup is amazing.

Delighted to have consulted on this story. The Trump administration recognizes importance of batteries for drones & AI but is biased against EVs which is biggest source of demand for batteries. Can the US have a vibrant battery sector w/o robust production of EVs? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/c...

Enjoying this report by David Hart who argues that the smarter strategy for the US is to compete with China in the EV space. Electric vehicles are a superior technology & will eventually displace ICE vehicles. Abandoning the contest will leave the US behind. www.cfr.org/report/compe...

Interesting podcast with Jake Sullivan that lingers on the challenge of doing industrial policy in the US and a defense of small yard high fence. open.spotify.com/episode/2yvO...

Another podcast on Dan Wang’s book. This might be the most generic of them in terms of recapping the main argument but still good. open.spotify.com/episode/1iBV...

I watched the six part Taylor Swift documentary on the Eras tour and she is a remarkable human being. Such discipline, class, creativity, empathy, and commitment to her fans.

Bizarre focus of an administration that has invented a national security threat from Venezuela and directed national security resources to focus on that country. Venezuela is not a source of or significant transit country for fentanyl and not even the most important exporter of cocaine.

Ack. Was sent a reminder of another review I had previously said yes to. Let's see, since the semester ended, I have done 4 journal reviews, 1 book manuscript review, and 1 book review for a press.

Bari Weiss, who made her career sowing distrust in the mainstream media, is now pretending other people did that and she’s here to help right the ship

78th review request of 2025.

Apparently also Wyclef has a Tiny Desk and brought out this singer Jazzy Amra at the 10 minute mark. She has a wonderful tone. Sounds like a young Lauryn Hill... youtu.be/EhnLJwmEy_k?...

Another good podcast with Dan Wang. Each has a slightly different wrinkle. The discussion of moving beyond Cold War 2.0 was interesting at the end. Trump as the least interested person in the admin in Cold War 2.0. open.spotify.com/episode/2o2g...

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Mom! Meat loaf!

Missed this. P-Funk did a Tiny Desk some years back. One of my favorite bands of all time. Saw them a couple of times in the mid-1990s. youtu.be/IxAcW7zgAD4?...

Some question about whether that letter from Epstein to Nassar was a fake. The Justice Department apparently previously studied this issue according to this July 2020 Justice Department letter but it's not clear their conclusion. www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

This conversation was sometimes contentious and I’m sure Tyler Cowen and I would clash mightily but enjoyed the more critical take on Dan Wang’s argument here, which stressed tested his ideas on China’s engineering state. open.spotify.com/episode/2JfY...

Former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse says he doesn’t have much time left. Sasse is just 53 years old.

77th review request of 2025

Interesting report from @carnegieendowment.org by @noupside.bsky.social & @rachelkleinfeld.bsky.social on how social media influencers/creators are upending how the public gets their news & what this means for nonpartisan institutions. carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

The GOP will lose the Latino vote for a generation over how ICE and CBP have acted. Below 30 percent approval is catastrophic. And we may not have seen the bottom.

If you prefer, there is also a Substack version of this post remembering colleagues we've lost. duckofminerva.substack.com/p/rememberin...

How U.S. Defense Industry Dodged a Rare-Earth Shortage After China’s Curbs www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/b...

Told you so.

What's the most salient detail to you from this video? The confirmation by the prison director saying as a point of pride that they leave the lights on 24-7 to terrorize the inmates.

!! Here’s a link to full video of the 60 Minutes segment that Bari Weiss killed last minute, via @jasonparis.bsky.social: is.gd/paU8Ko (It was uploaded to the Global TV app in Canada, seemingly by accident, and has now been taken down)

The segment seems to contradict Bari’s assertion that the Trump administration didn’t respond to request for comment. Per the report, 60 Minutes reached out to DHS who declined a request for an interview and referred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador.

I just watched it and now it's gone. It was about 13 minutes. Very few of the Venezuelans had any violent criminal past according to ICE. Conditions were terrible at the prison. Noem's visit was to different part of prison and Salvadoran prisoners were prop for her visit.

imagine the kind of person you would have to be to watch that 60 Minutes segment and think "I must do everything I can to defend the people in charge of this process of sending people to be tortured."

I just uploaded @jasonparis.bsky.social 's recording of the segment CBS News pulled from "60 Minutes" to YouTube:

This has been made available, so for purposes of commenting on Bari Weiss's decision to spike the story, here's a live-post of that segment. It begins with a "you may recall" summary of the deportation to el Salvador. Describes the admin's claim that it could deport the men without due process

Can confirm: Pulled 60 Minutes “Inside CECOT” segment on the El Salvador mega prison housing hundreds of Venezuelan deportees sent by the U.S. is on Global TV’s free app

Guess I’m a Dan Wang stan now. open.spotify.com/episode/1Qh5...

Listening to this now. open.spotify.com/episode/5qfA...

The Party of National Security

Listening to this which has 10 good news climate stories. open.spotify.com/episode/7Lr6...

We are in the upside down.

Trump’s new envoy admits his goal is to steal territory from a NATO ally.

Excuse me, 19 oil wells on the *where now*

I updated the post to include links and remembrances to Nuno Monteiro and Brandon Valeriano as well.

you can’t just like, make up ad hoc security reasons to kill ongoing major construction projects for energy generation already contracted out for ratepayers using backward looking justifications contradicted by documents that’s not, like, even a legal question at this point

it’s probably really important for anyone reading about the offshore wind stuff today to know the military already spent many years addressing these issues and those reviews are well documented, can be filed in court

😡