To the degree the response to Mamdani-Trump has been especially deranged, it may be because it reveals the relative unimportance of whatever it is we’re all doing here

not an eucatastrophe, but definitely the first eumisdemeanor our country has gotten in a while

Only in New York baby only in the USA

The US is losing blue-collar jobs for the first time since the pandemic—year-on-year job losses have hit 59k as manufacturing industries lose jobs at a rapid pace while growth in construction & transportation has nearly zeroed out

The Center for Public Enterprise wrote about this last year, fwiw: publicenterprise.org/report/smoot...

“A key House panel this afternoon advanced a bipartisan permitting deal that would include language appearing to bar Donald Trump or any other president from rescinding permits for energy projects.” heatmap.news/energy/speed...

Manufacturing consent

People are holding administrative burden parties to collectively take on tasks www.wsj.com/lifestyle/re...

State-level Democrats have embraced affordability as a new theory of how to win. That approach is reshaping some of their climate policies. Across the country, Dems are slow-walking GHG mandates or accepting more fossil supply to help stabilize energy prices. heatmap.news/politics/dem...

frankly not a given and a big relief nymag.com/intelligence...

We’re watching a shift where AI simulates the cohesion and reinforcement that used to require an entire online community. A single person can now build a complete parallel reality with nothing more than a prompt window. Which seems bad.

On this week’s episode of Shift Key, we talk to @advaitarun.bsky.social about the financial anatomy of the data center boom and what its unraveling — or continuation! — could mean for clean energy and electricity innovation. heatmap.news/podcast/shif...

I'm on @heatmap.news Shift Key this morning to talk all about "Bubble or Nothing" and the fragility of the data center investment boom! heatmap.news/podcast/shif...

In the new Ken Burns documentary, they have a historian talking about the significance of the Boston Tea Party demonstrators dressing like Indians, and I was like, ok, that’s smart, but who is this guy. It was Philip Deloria.

Cuts to NIH grants have disrupted at least 383 clinical trials, with infectious disease research hit especially hard. A stark example of the real-world repercussions of Trump and co.'s health policy 🧪 my latest:

if the Washington Post editorial board is now perceived as Bezos stooges, that actually opens up a massive opportunity in the district for a credible, 'good government' local interview and endorsement operation

More broadly, the 2024-2025 pro-Democratic shifts seem to be biggest in the poorest areas while in the richest towns the electorate got more Republican, ruining many a narrative

I can feel it happening. It is involuntary. It is beyond me or my ken to resist. I am beginning to talk myself into a very expensive digital camera purchase.

It feels like the WSJ is the last outlet that can do this kind of sports story — interesting, reporting-driven, and accessible to casual fans who follow the sport but don’t work in the industry. www.wsj.com/sports/footb...

If you're curious about this topic, a good starting place is our recent Shift Key episode about China’s grid with @michaeldavidson.bsky.social. China’s energy policy is much closer to ‘all of the above, but with a geo-security twist’ than we sometimes imagine: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

“‘A man is created not for peace, but for war, and Russians—for victory,’ Vladimir Solovyov, a TV anchor close to Putin, told a gathering of young adults in Moscow last fall. That is resonating with thousands of Russian children who have lost relatives in Ukraine.” www.wsj.com/world/russia...

Just as pizza was not perfected until it left Naples for New York, the pasty was not perfected until it left Cornwall and became the Uncrustable

just a reminder that King folded in September. don't believe he ever voted against cloture. not sure he really is the guy to talk to re: what the people who moved their votes were thinking.

Straightforward confirmation from Angus King that the gang of eight made the deal out of earnest concern for the filibuster. www.pressherald.com/2025/11/13/w...

New Marron survey of 400+ subway lines across the world from London to Paris to Shanghai finds just 6% still use two-person train operation, which would be required by a TWU-backed bill. “It doesn’t really matter to us what the data shows,” says TWU boss Samuelsen www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...

It is noteworthy that — seemingly in trying to protect Trump — House Republicans have created a big database of corrupt-looking emails that can be endlessly searched, screenshotted, and posted on social media.

I think this helpfully confirms the notion that the end of the filibuster was a big motivator for the eight Dems.

goin g to start postg like jemy epste . no i won t

Putting the bit in obit

I will always link to a good conceptual obit. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/b...

Flight attendant just announced that Delta has a “quiet cabin policy” that requires you to use your device either on mute or with headphones. This is the way. We are winning.

*WAYMO LAUNCHES DRIVERLESS ROBOTAXIS ON FREEWAYS IN FIRST FOR US *WAYMO FREEWAY ROUTES TO BE OFFERED IN LA, SF AND PHOENIX AREA

Toyota, a longtime hybrid car and truck promoter, is making one of the industry’s biggest bets on green transportation and opening a $14 billion battery plant in North Carolina.

Great piece by Zadie Smith. When the right talks about classics or "Western" culture, these works are only important to the extent that it demonstrates their superiority, they have no interest in art in and of itself beyond that www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“Berkshire will always be managed in a manner that will make its existence an asset to the United States and eschew activities that would lead it to become a supplicant.” on.ft.com/3WSy6Jk

It’s taken me a long time to accept but I am more of a Goose person than a Geese person.

everything is "performative" because we're in a social media panopticon where everything becomes free content for our tech overlords so they can be rich and we can get a strangely unfulfilling but addictive form of attention

This aligns with my experience talking to a lot of staff at environmental organizations who understand the necessity for land use and permitting reform but can't bring along senior leadership or donors. bsky.app/profile/robi...

Interesting to see @meganwachspress.bsky.social observe that the Sierra Club’s staff were clear-eyed about the need for clean energy development while the *members/small-dollar donor base* were more resistant to it.

my latest: i spent weeks investigating how frustrations about data centers were about to swallow american politics… …and then the 2025 election happened, proving the electoral impacts are already here. read and share my deep dive on the bipartisan AI techlash shaping our elections before our eyes!

There’s 40 gigawatts of spare capacity sitting around in Americans’ driveways. Why aren’t we using it to keep down electricity rates? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, @jessedjenkins.com and I chat with the cofounder and CEO of a company trying to do just that: heatmap.news/podcast/shif...

“The available data generally suggests that Democratic gains were driven slightly more by flipping Mr. Trump’s supporters than by benefiting from a superior turnout, at least for Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in NJ,” @natecohn.bsky.social writes: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...

As a fellow 34-year-old bearded guy I’m already finding it psychologically comforting to have Zohran around. If one of us is still wearing Ludlow-style navy suits and occasionally dealing with Slightly Puffy Face from certain angles, then I don’t have to worry about it either

Breaking: Nancy Pelosi will retire from Congress at the end of this term, drawing to a close the decadeslong career of the first woman speaker of the House on.wsj.com/4ouErXw

Another great piece on Mamdani and climate. I see a lot of people saying "but his transit/housing campaigns ARE about climate" and... yeah. But the observation that he did not campaign ON climate despite his past work to the issue is meaningful.

Today on SHIFT KEY: will EVs be bad or good for the grid? It all depends on how we coordinate charging (or don't), and today's guest is leading the charge to make charging cleaner, cheaper, and grid friendly. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or @heatmap.news heatmap.news/podcast/shif... 🔌💡

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“Given all the notes he struck during the campaign, it is revealing to consider those Mamdani left unplayed. One in particular stands out: Throughout the mayoral run, Mamdani rarely spoke about climate change — often doing so only when directly asked.” heatmap.news/politics/zoh...

my colleague @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social went long on how zohran mamdani — a climate hawk — barely mentioned climate change on the trail and how it is evidence the issue just isn’t the populist winner many activists long for it to be