Brian Schmidt
@schmidtbrian.bsky.social
Following politics, protecting democracy in Ukraine, US, and elsewhere, and environmental issues, particularly climate change and natural resource protection. Other Brian Schmidts (we are legion): happy to trade links so people find the right one.
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
a new genre of photo in the last year is federal agents working for ICE pointing guns directly at photographers
November 11, 2025 at 12:41 AM
a new genre of photo in the last year is federal agents working for ICE pointing guns directly at photographers
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
Remember how the climate denialists used to talk about China as a reason for inaction?
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds
World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Remember how the climate denialists used to talk about China as a reason for inaction?
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
We should be thinking about 2030 redistricting. Cal. can offer Texas a deal - don't gerrymander your state and we won't gerrymander ours. Considering that TX was already gerrymandered before it recently tried to add 5 more biased seats, there will be serious consequences if R's don't take the deal.
November 11, 2025 at 6:24 PM
We should be thinking about 2030 redistricting. Cal. can offer Texas a deal - don't gerrymander your state and we won't gerrymander ours. Considering that TX was already gerrymandered before it recently tried to add 5 more biased seats, there will be serious consequences if R's don't take the deal.
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
Buried inside the deal to reopen government is a provision that would give Senators private right of action to sue for millions in damages over their phone records being analyzed by Jack Smith's team.
news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
Shutdown Deal Would Let Senators Sue Over Jack Smith Searches
Senators whose phone records were sought by Special Counsel Jack Smith would gain authority to sue for millions in damages under a provision buried in the Senate-advanced deal to reopen the government...
news.bloomberglaw.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Buried inside the deal to reopen government is a provision that would give Senators private right of action to sue for millions in damages over their phone records being analyzed by Jack Smith's team.
news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
Today on Volts: as you may have heard, there were some elections last week. How did they go for climate world? To find out, I did my annual check-in with @spears.bsky.social of @climatecabinet.org. I don't want to spoil anything, but folks ... they went well. Really well.
So, there were some elections. How'd they go?
I talk with Caroline Spears about the stunning results in key state and local races and the lessons for 2026.
www.volts.wtf
November 10, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Today on Volts: as you may have heard, there were some elections last week. How did they go for climate world? To find out, I did my annual check-in with @spears.bsky.social of @climatecabinet.org. I don't want to spoil anything, but folks ... they went well. Really well.
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
EVs are for everyone in the market for a car:
electrek.co/2025/11/10/u...
electrek.co/2025/11/10/u...
November 10, 2025 at 9:50 PM
EVs are for everyone in the market for a car:
electrek.co/2025/11/10/u...
electrek.co/2025/11/10/u...
40% approval is where a president's own party starts breaking ranks against him. The 8 centrist Dem senators caved at the exact wrong time:
November 10, 2025 at 10:00 PM
40% approval is where a president's own party starts breaking ranks against him. The 8 centrist Dem senators caved at the exact wrong time:
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
New York millionaires: threatening to flee the city since 2009
November 7, 2025 at 9:36 PM
New York millionaires: threatening to flee the city since 2009
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
The elimination of USAID was an unforgivable moral atrocity that should haunt Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio for the rest of their days and beyond
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 2:36 AM
The elimination of USAID was an unforgivable moral atrocity that should haunt Trump, Elon Musk and Marco Rubio for the rest of their days and beyond
There should be a public boycott of deep-sea mining companies and their products until the environmental concerns are resolved:
phys.org/news/2025-11...
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Deep-sea mining waste threatens life and foodwebs in the ocean's dim 'twilight zone,' first study of its kind finds
A new study led by researchers at the University of Hawaii (UH) at Mānoa published in Nature Communications is the first of its kind to show that waste discharged from deep-sea mining operations in th...
phys.org
November 7, 2025 at 9:40 PM
There should be a public boycott of deep-sea mining companies and their products until the environmental concerns are resolved:
phys.org/news/2025-11...
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
Here's my piece for @lawfaremedia.org on my experience covering the Sandwich Guy trial. Warning: longer than 280 characters!
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/sand...
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/sand...
Sandwich Guy, Thrower of Hoagie–Or Hero?
The trial ended in an acquittal. But the proceedings felt like a strange sort of performance art—highly amusing and highly menacing at the same time.
www.lawfaremedia.org
November 6, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Here's my piece for @lawfaremedia.org on my experience covering the Sandwich Guy trial. Warning: longer than 280 characters!
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/sand...
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/sand...
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
🔥 @agiftfromtodd.bsky.social : "Y’all get it now?? Do you understand what’s possible? I don't wanna hear no more 'my vote doesn't matter. Nothing ever changes.' Look what happens when you participate. We win everything. There are more of us… for the rest of your damn life, you gotta vote.”
November 6, 2025 at 9:57 PM
🔥 @agiftfromtodd.bsky.social : "Y’all get it now?? Do you understand what’s possible? I don't wanna hear no more 'my vote doesn't matter. Nothing ever changes.' Look what happens when you participate. We win everything. There are more of us… for the rest of your damn life, you gotta vote.”
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
Dog Sleep Core. I need this today
November 5, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Dog Sleep Core. I need this today
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
"... party insiders say Democrats are still stuck running social media programs that strive for authenticity, but often clash with the party’s unrelenting desire to maintain control."
Loosen up, Dems.
Loosen up, Dems.
It’s Been a Year Since Trump Was Elected. Democrats Still Don’t Get the Internet
“I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why we are still so rigid and moderating everything when we have nothing to lose for the first time,” a Democratic digital strategist tells WIRED.
www.wired.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:56 PM
"... party insiders say Democrats are still stuck running social media programs that strive for authenticity, but often clash with the party’s unrelenting desire to maintain control."
Loosen up, Dems.
Loosen up, Dems.
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
It will be interesting to see if he can maintain this high-energy, extremely-online transparency while actually governing. It would be fascinating to see someone actually use this style of media to bring people in to gov't itself, to make them feel involved in administration.
November 5, 2025 at 6:34 PM
It will be interesting to see if he can maintain this high-energy, extremely-online transparency while actually governing. It would be fascinating to see someone actually use this style of media to bring people in to gov't itself, to make them feel involved in administration.
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
This is one of the greatest threads of all time
The defense team presses Lairmore on whether the sandwich really 'exploded.' They return to the photo of the sandwich and wrapper on the ground.
"That sandwich hasn't exploded at all, has it?" defense asks.
"It looks like a little bit is coming out towards the bottom," Lairmore replies.
"That sandwich hasn't exploded at all, has it?" defense asks.
"It looks like a little bit is coming out towards the bottom," Lairmore replies.
November 4, 2025 at 4:48 PM
This is one of the greatest threads of all time
I wonder how many people out there share my (cautious) support for both Millei and Mamdani.
It makes sense to me, given the situations in Argentina and New York.
It makes sense to me, given the situations in Argentina and New York.
November 4, 2025 at 6:34 PM
I wonder how many people out there share my (cautious) support for both Millei and Mamdani.
It makes sense to me, given the situations in Argentina and New York.
It makes sense to me, given the situations in Argentina and New York.
This was an amazing documentary. I watched it years ago and still think about it. I've been meaning to watch it again. Not about the banality of evil so much as how ordinary evil can become monstruous, and how people react afterwards to their own evil.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pwT...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pwT...
The Documentary That Exposed a Genocide
YouTube video by Projectionist
www.youtube.com
November 4, 2025 at 3:43 PM
This was an amazing documentary. I watched it years ago and still think about it. I've been meaning to watch it again. Not about the banality of evil so much as how ordinary evil can become monstruous, and how people react afterwards to their own evil.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pwT...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pwT...
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
On how Ezra Klein's piece yesterday is emphatically different from popularism www.programmablemutter.com/p/liberalism...
Liberalism transforms plurality from weakness to strength
At least it does when it works right ...
www.programmablemutter.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:44 PM
On how Ezra Klein's piece yesterday is emphatically different from popularism www.programmablemutter.com/p/liberalism...
As someone with a lot of great ideas (IMNSHO), I completely agree with this.
If I have a choice -- one one side, middle-aged academic author with grand 3-volume tome on How to Create the Perfect World (I get two or three of these *a week*); on the other side, someone who boosted heat pump uptake in midsized NYC multifamily buildings by 17% -- I choose the latter every time.
November 3, 2025 at 9:53 PM
As someone with a lot of great ideas (IMNSHO), I completely agree with this.
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
With all these extrajudicial boat murders, we have a president who is not only an adjudicated rapist, but also an unapprehended serial killer.
November 3, 2025 at 8:45 PM
With all these extrajudicial boat murders, we have a president who is not only an adjudicated rapist, but also an unapprehended serial killer.
Reposted by Brian Schmidt
Arguments about RECs and arguments about offsets both seem to come down to additionality, but the arguments about RECs aren't phrased that way.
Missing a discussion of additionality seems to miss the key issue.
Missing a discussion of additionality seems to miss the key issue.
November 3, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Arguments about RECs and arguments about offsets both seem to come down to additionality, but the arguments about RECs aren't phrased that way.
Missing a discussion of additionality seems to miss the key issue.
Missing a discussion of additionality seems to miss the key issue.
Implies the lake at Gale Crater spent much of its existence exposed to air - not under an ice sheet cover.
phys.org/news/2025-10...
phys.org/news/2025-10...
Postcards from ancient Mars: Isotopes illuminate early Martian climate
A new analysis of chemical signatures measured by NASA's Curiosity Rover gives a peek at Mars's past to a time some 3.7 billion years ago, when it was warmer and wetter.
phys.org
November 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Implies the lake at Gale Crater spent much of its existence exposed to air - not under an ice sheet cover.
phys.org/news/2025-10...
phys.org/news/2025-10...