The reason I am absolutely fixated on industrial capacity and resource security is because as you can see from this evenings events international law does not count for much these days. I rate a degree in folklore and mythology over international law any day at this point.

You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today. This could be you.

Time to tune in.

This is a great thread. China's aluminum sector is huge, well over half of global production. Aluminum is extremely energy/electricity intensive. Decarbonizing this sector in China would be an emissions win probably on the scale of the IRA (the greatest law since sliced bread).

An n-shaped recovery.

Genuinely amazing to me that this point still has to be made, in the Year of Our Lord 2025. Demonstration that motivated reasoning is powerful everywhere in politics. Brexiteers cannot by made to see economic costs. Remainiacs cannot be made to see that economic costs aren't why they lost.

i think a pivotal driving belief of trump and these fucking psychos in general is that there is no such thing as mutually beneficial interactions or relationships. there is only domination, hierarchy and winning.

boy is this true. the media have convinced themselves that the rules don't apply to Trump, which is a self-fulfilling prophecy

Because Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's "Abundance" is less a book than a discourse-generating machine (by design), I'm going to review the *reviews* (I also have a review of the actual book coming, I'm not a total weirdo). Roughly from worst to best:

More of this. We need moral clarity from our leaders.

This is indeed brilliant

Next week, the new European Commission will put forward its clean industrial policy plans. In a new paper, @ph-jaeg.bsky.social and I dig into what this strategy needs to deliver— backed by lots of brand-new *sectoral* data on the distribution of national subsidies. Here are our main takeaways:

Maybe I wasn’t clear about this. I wanted more egg and no plane crash, not many plane crash and no egg.

things are very bad right now, but the US also has advantages that other backsliding democracies haven't. the best example of this imo is our bafflingly decentralized elections system: there is literally no way for the federal govt to "cancel" a midterm election, bc the feds don't run elections

An excellent question. Where are the Fortune 500 & Wall Street CEOs? Where are the university presidents? Where are the civil society leaders? Not just speaking out specifically in defense of their institutions & democracy, but also about 🇺🇸's global interests? The silence is deafening & shameful.

The administration had to be taught that DOE handles nuclear weapons. A second time! I know folks that are still pulling on the energy dominance thread, but that ship sailed in November.

Oh so we're BONED boned, got it.

There's been so much going on I haven't had a chance to cover it but Musk's DOGE connecting so many government systems to the open internet is so insanely disastrous.

For those who missed it Brad and my paper is here. The argument, again, is simple: Berlin and Brussels don't have to passively accept deindustrialisation in the face of China's distortions. Building a strong European industrial and trade policy is now urgent. Call Mario. www.cer.eu/publications...

This is giving me life. Especially the end of the third paragraph! Hagan Scotten is an ASUA in SDNY who resigned today following the resignation of his boss, Danielle Sassoon., on Thursday. He had been placed on leave by the No. 2 man at Justice, Emil Bove III, (1/2)

Profile in Corruption.

Scoop: The databases powering DOGE.gov are insecure, and people outside the government have already pushed their own updates to the site to prove it: www.404media.co/anyone-can-p...

So….Hegseth has quit drinking yeah?

Wowwwww. Hudson Valley / Westchester County is usually pretty purple. This local race for County Executive was hard fought. Democrats are coming back strong there and everywhere, from upstate NY to Minnesota to Iowa. Keep fighting. Take it all back.

Inside East Africa’s bold electric vehicle push theprogressplaybook.com/2025/02/11/i...

As the Trusk regime is wrecking the state apparatus that brought us the IRA, it's more urgent than ever to understand the politics of green macrofinancial regimes. Here's a 🧵 on the result of @danielagabor.bsky.social and I wrecking our brains for four years. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Jens connects the dots between the weak international role of the euro and Europe's response to the Trump administration pushing the dollar-dominated global economic system to its boundaries - and possibly breaking point.

Bird Flu: Myth Vs. Fact theonion.com/bird-fl...

Cheeky

Thanks to @normeisen.bsky.social - read this and act on the 7 lessons in whatever ways are available to you, now

Difficult to overstate what a monumentally stupid, shooting-self-in-foot moment killing USAID is. The unforced error to end all unforced errors.

Overturning Sullivan has at least two votes on the Supreme Court — Thomas and Alito. Maybe more. I can’t overstate how catastrophic that would be for free expression in America in an environment where political and performative defamation litigation are common.

There is no hegemonic replacement for the US -- China certainly can't be that replacement -- but things will diffuse elsewhere.

People abroad are going to get tired of being perpetually held hostage by our dysfunctional domestic politics. They will make alternative arrangements. Not overnight. But they will.

The underlying problem with US national security at this point is actually really simple. If the entire US-led world order can be undone because ~120,000 people in a few states are unhappy about burger prices then there is very little stability for any coherent natsec policy

Entire USAID agency worldwide was deleted by a consulting government employee with no authority to do so. It’s a constitutional crisis that puts US national security at risk and normies won’t get this until legacy media says this clearly and loudly.

Shutting off USAID payments is bad, but it's not just that: if someone (Trump, Musk, a lackey, whoever) can unilaterally shut off Congressionally-appropriated payments, they can shut off anything. Medicare payments to certain hospitals. Social Security checks to selected voters. Sky's the limit.

It’s pretty much impossible to post or repost every thread showing the value of some gov agency that is currently being gutted. So here’s one on NOAA as an example and know that there a ton more examples out there.

How it started / how it's going Four years ago we were getting inauguration-related joke memes about the ethos of National Socialism. This, year we got an inauguration speech with actual National Socialism. One of many tragic signs of democratic backsliding today & over the last four years.

Once again: bsky.app/profile/mcop...

We never know what people's true motivations or intentions are. We can only judge them by their actions. And, um...

generatecapital.com/generate-cap... Pretty cool to see this happen! Industry of the future will be co-located in areas with abundant renewables, like the US Southwest. My lingering question is how much of a role gas will play, as they mention CCS. Backup power?

"In Washington state, agricultural labor shortages have become a pressing concern... With potential mass deportations... farmers in Washington face tough questions." www.nwpb.org/2025/01/17/l...

The rest of the world would do well to assume that yesterday’s restraint was merely a delay rather than a cancellation of Trump’s planned tariff increases. (5/5)

"It is our choice, as a society, that we govern reactively rather than proactively, that we treat the awful policies that encourage building in fire-prone areas as not an emergency and only the resultant fires as one..." www.vox.com/future-perfe...

High Speed Charging Stations spread across the USA. Installation of new charging stations in Q4 2024 (766) were nearly 100% higher than in Q4 2022 (386). More EV stations encourage EV sales, which encourage more EV stations. Wonderful! #energysky www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The United States built a sophisticated public energy credit fund for the deployment of advanced technologies. It made $62bn in closed loans, has $47bn more in conditional commitments. Billions more in the pipeline. This’ll pay dividends for years. Longer if we build on what Jigar and his team did.

Great to see thoughtgul guidance like this come out. Not an issue that's going away anytime soon. emp.lbl.gov/publications...

I shared this article with two GOP legislators, multiple C level coop and municipal officers, a legislative affairs director of an investor owned utility, and a lobbyist for an organization I am inclined to hate but whose kid plays a really solid midfield. It got a good laugh. Not happening.