Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social
Public policy ( #climate / energy policy, more specifically ) & IR prof (but also ex-🇨🇦 trade diplomat). PoliSciSky 🗺️, EnergySky 🔌💡, & GreenSky 🌱.
Cf. same handles on birdsite & mastodon.social/@robshum
Cf. same handles on birdsite & mastodon.social/@robshum
Pinned
Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social
· Aug 2
YOUR DAILY REMINDER
"We'll need [coal/oil/gas] for decades" is a rhetorical tool to distract you from the real point: we need to minimise how much we burn over the coming decades.
The vague statement flattens and obscures the single priority: steep, immediate reductions.
"We'll need [coal/oil/gas] for decades" is a rhetorical tool to distract you from the real point: we need to minimise how much we burn over the coming decades.
The vague statement flattens and obscures the single priority: steep, immediate reductions.
You can worry about if you’re over-dooming or under-dooming.
Or you can do something more productive: Focus on how to INCREASE THE SLOPE of decarbonization.
Or you can do something more productive: Focus on how to INCREASE THE SLOPE of decarbonization.
Reposted by Rob Shum
Reposted by Rob Shum
this seems specifically designed to break mail-in voting (where deadlines are defined by postmark)
As of 12/24/25, USPS changed policy on when they postmark mail. Mail dropped off is no longer guaranteed a same-day postmark. Tax returns & other time-sensitive items are now stamped when they reach a regional processing center, which may be days later. Plan deadlines accordingly to avoid penalties.
USPS Announces Changes to the Postmark Date System
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has adopted a final rule (FR Doc.
share.google
December 29, 2025 at 9:51 PM
this seems specifically designed to break mail-in voting (where deadlines are defined by postmark)
Reposted by Rob Shum
One of the many reasons this regime’s mendacious mindset forcing back to fossil fuels is strategy #epicfail.
US is never going to be the marginal producer of the lowest cost light sweet crude. So the price of the (always finite) commodity is going to be priced globally. Not by friendly nations.
US is never going to be the marginal producer of the lowest cost light sweet crude. So the price of the (always finite) commodity is going to be priced globally. Not by friendly nations.
Good morning. How about 2000 words about the state of the US oil industry?
"Hamm admitted the Bakken is 'tapped out.' The reason he is buying shale assets in other countries is because the reality is that the U.S. oil industry is tapped out."
"Hamm admitted the Bakken is 'tapped out.' The reason he is buying shale assets in other countries is because the reality is that the U.S. oil industry is tapped out."
Lessons from the Bakken
The New York Times recently profiled Harold Hamm, Continental CEO Resources chairman emeritus and noted how Hamm is advising Trump to go all in on fossil fuels. This should surprise no one as Harold H...
powering-the-planet.ghost.io
December 29, 2025 at 3:07 PM
One of the many reasons this regime’s mendacious mindset forcing back to fossil fuels is strategy #epicfail.
US is never going to be the marginal producer of the lowest cost light sweet crude. So the price of the (always finite) commodity is going to be priced globally. Not by friendly nations.
US is never going to be the marginal producer of the lowest cost light sweet crude. So the price of the (always finite) commodity is going to be priced globally. Not by friendly nations.
Hard to prove for sure, but important to remember that the people most affected are presumably least likely to speak out
See also this www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
See also this www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
December 29, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Or, as Orwell put it: “Four legs good, two legs bad.”
“Rather than dismantling the excesses of the woke era, the new Trump-friendly programs and policies simply repurposed them to serve a different ideological agenda. The result is a new orthodoxy even more stifling than the last.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/o...
Opinion | Harvard’s New Campus Orthodoxy Is Even More Stifling Than the Old
www.nytimes.com
December 29, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Or, as Orwell put it: “Four legs good, two legs bad.”
Politics are a social science, characterized by reflexivity.
It’s dynamic, adaptive, evolving, and constantly innovating.
Here’s how the New 21st century competitive authoritarianism works: RULE BY Social Media TERROR.
Will it outcompete liberal RULE OF LAW?
It’s dynamic, adaptive, evolving, and constantly innovating.
Here’s how the New 21st century competitive authoritarianism works: RULE BY Social Media TERROR.
Will it outcompete liberal RULE OF LAW?
How stochastic terrorism works - Trump leverages the threats he induces against even Marjorie Taylor Greene's family www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m... One important reason that so many Rs are scared to challenge him.
December 29, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Politics are a social science, characterized by reflexivity.
It’s dynamic, adaptive, evolving, and constantly innovating.
Here’s how the New 21st century competitive authoritarianism works: RULE BY Social Media TERROR.
Will it outcompete liberal RULE OF LAW?
It’s dynamic, adaptive, evolving, and constantly innovating.
Here’s how the New 21st century competitive authoritarianism works: RULE BY Social Media TERROR.
Will it outcompete liberal RULE OF LAW?
What do we call MAGAts who have been “mugged by reality”?
"The television was, as always, set to Fox News, though Greene told me she no longer watched the network because she found it factually unreliable."
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/m...
‘I Was Just So Naïve’: Inside Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Break With Trump
www.nytimes.com
December 29, 2025 at 10:41 PM
What do we call MAGAts who have been “mugged by reality”?
Reposted by Rob Shum
On this Christmas Day, Israeli press reports that Georgetown has cut ties with Franceska Albanese after a campaign by a pro-Apartheid, pro-Genocide org specializing in canceling critics of Israel.
They can't win a single argument, so they rely on silencing people.
www.jpost.com/diaspora/ant...
They can't win a single argument, so they rely on silencing people.
www.jpost.com/diaspora/ant...
Georgetown University severs ties with Francesca Albanese | The Jerusalem Post
Georgetown University has removed Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur, following her antisemitic remarks, including justifying the October 7 attacks, after a campaign by UN Watch.
www.jpost.com
December 25, 2025 at 6:17 PM
On this Christmas Day, Israeli press reports that Georgetown has cut ties with Franceska Albanese after a campaign by a pro-Apartheid, pro-Genocide org specializing in canceling critics of Israel.
They can't win a single argument, so they rely on silencing people.
www.jpost.com/diaspora/ant...
They can't win a single argument, so they rely on silencing people.
www.jpost.com/diaspora/ant...
Reposted by Rob Shum
2nd world problems:
Many of ICE’s tactics are “plainly illegal,” the former federal judge Nancy Gertner writes. The legal precedent that permits such lawlessness was the expectation of well-intentioned immigration enforcement: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Why ICE Is Getting Away With It
The Constitution inarguably applies to federal immigration agents—but the Supreme Court has taken away the hope of ever holding them to that standard.
www.theatlantic.com
December 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM
2nd world problems:
“… The Arctic is heating up as much as four times as quickly as the global average, due to the burning of fossil fuels, and this extra heat is warping the world’s refrigerator — a region that acts as a key climate regulator for the rest of the planet. …” 🌱
The Arctic just had its hottest year on record, while measures of sea ice hit a new low. via The Guardian
Sea Ice Hits New Low in Hottest Year on Record for the Arctic
The Arctic endured a year of record heat and shrunken sea ice as the world’s northern latitudes continue a rapid shift to becoming rainier and less ice-bound due to the climate crisis, scientists have reported.
e360.yale.edu
December 29, 2025 at 1:39 PM
“… The Arctic is heating up as much as four times as quickly as the global average, due to the burning of fossil fuels, and this extra heat is warping the world’s refrigerator — a region that acts as a key climate regulator for the rest of the planet. …” 🌱
Reposted by Rob Shum
Jazz physicists have been striving for decades towards this clean and cosmic power source
One day we will transcend the Davis paradox and achieve ignition of limitless Hancock radiation
#energysky
One day we will transcend the Davis paradox and achieve ignition of limitless Hancock radiation
#energysky
the world needs jazz fusion
December 28, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Jazz physicists have been striving for decades towards this clean and cosmic power source
One day we will transcend the Davis paradox and achieve ignition of limitless Hancock radiation
#energysky
One day we will transcend the Davis paradox and achieve ignition of limitless Hancock radiation
#energysky
This is not the conclusion that someone who crashed their economy — in a brief but epic real-time display of total ineptness and disregard for reality — would come to in a functioning society.
Liz Truss, who served 44 days as UK prime minister, goes full Curtis Yarvin.
Interviewing Yarvin on her new podcast, she calls for overhauling UK government to fit his vision.
“I agree with you, having spent 10 years in the system, you need to start from scratch,” Truss tells Yarvin.
Interviewing Yarvin on her new podcast, she calls for overhauling UK government to fit his vision.
“I agree with you, having spent 10 years in the system, you need to start from scratch,” Truss tells Yarvin.
December 28, 2025 at 9:31 PM
This is not the conclusion that someone who crashed their economy — in a brief but epic real-time display of total ineptness and disregard for reality — would come to in a functioning society.
Reposted by Rob Shum
This is the world Justice Kavanaugh sanctioned in his foolish & unnecessary concurring opinion to the Court’s order in Noem v Vasquez Perdomo. His hopes of cleaning up that blunder with a plaintive footnote in last week’s concurring opinion in Trump v. Illinois, demonstrates his staggering naïveté.
"'I have my ID!' Mubashir shouted repeatedly, as heard on the video. The agents do not respond."
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
ICE agents tackle, arrest American citizen in Minneapolis
Federal immigration agents tackled and arrested a Somali American man in Minneapolis on Tuesday and detained him for about two hours for no apparent reason other than his ethnicity.
www.mprnews.org
December 28, 2025 at 4:32 PM
This is the world Justice Kavanaugh sanctioned in his foolish & unnecessary concurring opinion to the Court’s order in Noem v Vasquez Perdomo. His hopes of cleaning up that blunder with a plaintive footnote in last week’s concurring opinion in Trump v. Illinois, demonstrates his staggering naïveté.
Reposted by Rob Shum
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group. “Big tech has made their choice.”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable…
www.404media.co
December 28, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group. “Big tech has made their choice.”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
What do you call this act?
“Conservative fiscal policy!”
“Conservative fiscal policy!”
December 28, 2025 at 5:02 AM
What do you call this act?
“Conservative fiscal policy!”
“Conservative fiscal policy!”
Reposted by Rob Shum
These clowns are just making up duties and rules and laws. Artists don't have any duty to sing for fascists, and only a fascist would try to force them to.
"Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn't courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people"- Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi
Kennedy Center vows to sue musician who canceled performance over Trump name change
The Kennedy Center is planning legal action after jazz musician Chuck Redd canceled an annual holiday concert. Redd pulled out after President Trump's name appeared on the building.
www.npr.org
December 28, 2025 at 3:19 AM
These clowns are just making up duties and rules and laws. Artists don't have any duty to sing for fascists, and only a fascist would try to force them to.
Reposted by Rob Shum
Elite free speech discourse has culminated in state action to compel labor
This is the logical and inevitable conclusion of the last decade of elite media "free speech" discourse.
December 28, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Elite free speech discourse has culminated in state action to compel labor
Reposted by Rob Shum
“Bankruptcies soar” is certainly what you’d expect from Donald Trump www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Bankruptcies soar as companies grapple with inflation, tariffs
Businesses in vulnerable sectors found themselves caught between rising tariffs and beleaguered consumers.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 28, 2025 at 1:33 AM
“Bankruptcies soar” is certainly what you’d expect from Donald Trump www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
You thought #neoconservatives were bad?
Think again. And just wait for the next #neofascist quagmire. 🗺️
Think again. And just wait for the next #neofascist quagmire. 🗺️
Very Iraq-like - a confluence of policy goals fueling the creation of an ill-conceived strategy www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/u...
December 28, 2025 at 1:51 AM
You thought #neoconservatives were bad?
Think again. And just wait for the next #neofascist quagmire. 🗺️
Think again. And just wait for the next #neofascist quagmire. 🗺️
Reposted by Rob Shum
The worst design feature of the last 15 years; wish they could all be ripped out
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its senses.
Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its…
wrd.cm
December 27, 2025 at 10:43 PM
The worst design feature of the last 15 years; wish they could all be ripped out
Reposted by Rob Shum
That makes 32 reported deaths in ICE custody since Trump took power again.
Authorities have reported the death of a Nicaraguan immigrant in ICE custody in a hospital in Natchez, Mississippi, the seventh reported death of an immigrant in ICE custody this month.
buff.ly/NntUdNz
buff.ly/NntUdNz
Nicaraguan Man in ICE Custody Dies in Mississippi Hospital
A Nicaraguan man has died in ICE custody at a hospital in Natchez, Mississippi, the seventh reported death of a person in custody this month.
www.mississippifreepress.org
December 26, 2025 at 8:35 PM
That makes 32 reported deaths in ICE custody since Trump took power again.
Pharaonic conservatism.
This is beyond Christian nationalism. Imagine worshipping Trump.
December 27, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Pharaonic conservatism.
The Great Convergence of the 21st century, where Washington and Beijing meet: A surveillance state to repress dissent.
Call it “The Xinjiang Consensus.”
Call it “The Xinjiang Consensus.”
ICE has long used the latest spy tech to pursue immigrants — but now it’s also targeting anti-ICE protesters and anyone who allegedly funds them. bit.ly/3Kq348R
ICE Wants to Go After Dissenters as well as Immigrants
The Trump administration is being open about its plans to violate Americans’ First and Fourth Amendment rights.
www.brennancenter.org
December 27, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The Great Convergence of the 21st century, where Washington and Beijing meet: A surveillance state to repress dissent.
Call it “The Xinjiang Consensus.”
Call it “The Xinjiang Consensus.”
Articles like this are why I have a print subscription to the LRB.
But increasingly, as in this case, I find myself unable to wait for my print copy to arrive before reading.
That’s how good this publication is. Indispensable.
But increasingly, as in this case, I find myself unable to wait for my print copy to arrive before reading.
That’s how good this publication is. Indispensable.
“The value of the world’s top ten companies is $25.6 trillion. Of that, $15.1 trillion has accumulated since 30 November 2022 and is directly linked to the AI boom.”
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
John Lanchester · King of Cannibal Island: Will the AI bubble burst?
Nvidia shares are the purest bet you can make on the impact of AI. The leading firms are lending money to one another in...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 27, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Articles like this are why I have a print subscription to the LRB.
But increasingly, as in this case, I find myself unable to wait for my print copy to arrive before reading.
That’s how good this publication is. Indispensable.
But increasingly, as in this case, I find myself unable to wait for my print copy to arrive before reading.
That’s how good this publication is. Indispensable.