a lot of interesting revelations between the lines of this story www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

I’m at Times Square, where an emergency “No War On Venezuela” protest just took to the street. Easily a thousand people here in real-feel 20°F weather. “No more coups, no more wars, Venezuela’s not yours!” “No boots on the ground no bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere!”

The US produces >13 mn barrels of oil per day. Venezuela produces <1 million bpd There's a global oil glut i.e. lower prices. That's bad for US producers, who need higher prices to break even. Hard to imagine they're eager to make big new investments in an unstable place w/ decrepit infrastructure

At least they’re saying the quiet part out loud

Just as a practical matter, how is the United States going to “run Venezuela” after the overnight abduction raid. Do US forces currently control an airport? A television station? A major road?

"We're in the oil business" - Trump

Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress.

try to make sense of it

I’m thinking this morning about all the people I spoke to last year who were absolutely convinced, and tried to convince me, that Trump would be antiwar compared to Biden and Harris. In the past week alone he has attacked Nigeria and then Venezuela and also threatened to attack Iran (again).

A new type of telescope designed to accelerate a new sort of astronomy was completed this year on a mountaintop in Chile. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will relentlessly sweep across the heavens. Learn more about Science's 2025 #BOTY and the runners-up: https://scim.ag/3MGESjx

As we enter 2026, many people, places, institutions & rights are under threat - including the right to protest itself. Peaceful protest has advanced progress for generations; if lose our right to peaceful protest, we stand to lose so much more. That’s why Andre & I wrote a book: protestthebook.com

Another winter storm will bring widespread rain and gusty winds to much of California this weekend. This one will be focused more on NorCal vs SoCal. Only minor rain/wind impacts are expected--but a notable coastal flood event may occur in SF Bay Area (see my other thread). #CAwx

Don’t give in to despair. Amid bad news, fake news, billionaire takeover, conflict and creeping authoritarianism, remember: it’s not too late. Every fraction of a degree, every action, still matters.

this is worth reading. a longtime NYT insider confirms that the paper's abrupt turn into seething anti-trans bigotry came directly from the top: AG Sulzberg and his 2 deputies, Joe Kahn and Carolyn Ryan transnews.network/p/a-directiv...

Opinions on "superintelligence" can reasonably differ. (Personally I think it's a terrible framing that obscures more than it clarifies.) But I still struggle to comprehend why anyone would think LLMs are the route to it.

Eerie and fascinating www.404media.co/researchers-...

Happy New Year, everyone! 💫

The demolition of Goddard Space Flight Center continues, with a lapdog Congress and lapdog press. The unique Goddard Library is being shuttered and its collection dumped, as Building 21 is illegally eliminated. The @nytimes.com story accepts the Trump regime's bald lies about their destruction.

Elon Musk promised a lot of things by 2025 - colonists arriving on Mars - xAI achieving AGI - Tesla robotaxis serving half the U.S. - completely driverless robotaxis - a Tesla Roadster demo - DOGE cutting trillions none of them happened mashable.com/article/elon-mus...

Great @nytimes.com reporting here: "Since his return to office, President Trump and his family have engaged in a moneymaking campaign like none in modern American history. It is enriching the family, as well as important officials and business partners." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

“We’re reasonably certain the telescope is fine, and that is a huge relief because of course the telescope is the heart and soul of this place.” www.mercurynews.com/2025/12/30/l...

The share of counties where 95% or more of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles has dropped from 50% before the pandemic to 28%, according to our analysis of public records from 44 states and the District of Columbia. At least 19,000 schools are now more vulnerable to outbreaks.

And it is of course fierce, trenchant, and to the point and everyone should read it.

Science has named the seemingly unstoppable growth of renewable energy worldwide as the 2025 Breakthrough of the Year. Learn more about this year's #BOTY and other big advances in science: https://scim.ag/493Tpgx

I like Ramez a lot but I disagree with him here. First, let's agree that oil and gas production are a complex case to model, because oil at least is subject to the behavior of a cartel (OPEC) and gas is increasingly international, with a few big buyers and sellers

It's almost as if opposing massive, greedy, energy-intensive fossil fuel export industries overlaps perfectly with trying to improve affordability insideclimatenews.org/news/1712202...

The @nytimes.com Lost Science series continues. Here's my Q&A with a scientist who was studying how wildfire smoke threatens human health when the EPA decided that her research was no longer a funding priority. Gift link: nyti.ms/4jhpw14

“From a planetary perspective, human society is now, above all else, a conduit for moving carbon in the crust into the atmosphere. CO2 is what we make.”

One thing 2025 made clear: Durable progress on climate in the US will require structural reform to our corrupted political systems. Otherwise, steps forward will always be vulnerable to the bloody clawbacks we saw this year. A political strategy that doesn't center system reform is not "pragmatic."

Stuff like this* always makes me wonder if there actually are databases and rigorous analyses of what the NYT (or other media) covers and doesn't. I assume someone does this sort of research, but not sure where to start! *not doubting the conclusion here, but just curious to see actual statistics

Best Twitter riposte of the day

My notes from last night's panel on Brenner-Riley.— www.unpopularfront.news/p/politics-a...

Oh, hey, that's my article.

Part of thread. It should be ranked higher.

Recreating this legendary Peanuts scene. Yeah hoe!

A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty: My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media. Huh? When did I say that?!

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

“And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”

This is amazing work! Inside the Deportation Machine www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I forgot where I first heard or saw it but someone pointed out: look at the way this coverup is being conducted compared to how a different Trump attorney general completely ratfucked the mueller report Next time, hire the Iran Contra coverup man

this image is maybe the single greatest joke in TRADING PLACES. and also a pretty apt description of the trump/vance/national conservative vision of america

10,000 Maniacs in 1997 is worth about 20,200 Maniacs today.

New paper just dropped about sticks and carrots in climate policy: “Policy carrots alone do not dramatically reduce future emissions. Only with policy sticks are there unambiguous signals to substantially shrink the size of incumbent fossil fuel industries.”

In my brain is apparently 83% of the lyrics to "The Humpty Dance" but not why I came upstairs just now.

NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

one side wants to forgive student loan debt. the other wants to raid your bank account. we are not the same.

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

The “free speech” and “cancel culture” panics have led to overt state censorship because that was always their purpose. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Elon Musk and Bari Weiss: united in failure because political grievances aren’t a substitute for actual knowledge about things. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/b... www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...