irgetsreal.bsky.social

Elon: Will you do anything I want for $1 billion? Paxton: Of course E: How about $1? P: What kind of person do you think I am? E: We’ve already established that. Now we are just haggling on price. P: How about twenty doll… E: How about $158 million?

“But I got road salt exempted” is the new “Please clap.”

Neo-royals gona Neo-royal… www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

NYT account of a WH meeting of just five people: DJT, Wiles, Worrington, Burgum, and Pirro. The story favors Pirro in her fight w Burgum. Gee, who could have leaked? Good luck to Burgum removing that knife from his back. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/u...

Churchill negotiated a better deal at Munich

It’s really a great question because it immediately reveals whether someone is unfit for public service. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Democrats have stopped talking about climate. Strategists say that's smart—but they're wrong. Making climate a top priority wins votes, and barely 1 in 10 voters will vote against climate action. Read all about it in my newsletter, "Notes from the Electric Era." electricnotes.news/p/yes-democr...

If Platner drops, the Dem. Party in Maine has the opportunity to do what the DNC utterly failed to do when Biden dropped: run a selection process that lets voters have a say (and creates drama and great media coverage). www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

One advantage of rank choice voting you get more info. Nirav Shah got more first round votes for Governor than Pingree, and is a good choice to replace Plattner if he drops out. Anyone who was the face of a state’s Covid policy and came out popular has talent. ballotpedia.org/Maine_gubern...

This news gutted me. I don’t won’t go into details, but Raul was publicly, bravely KIND to me at a very low point in my professional life when so others were cowardly, weak, and mean. He owed me nothing. He gave because he wanted to. A rare occurrence in my life. jovanevery.co.uk/in-memoriam-...

Very sorry to hear about the sudden passing of Raul Pacheco Vega @raulpachecovega.bsky.social Raul was a prolific researcher who was also intensely committed to teaching and helping others with their research. He will be sorely missed.

Seeing a lot of bad takes on how Indiana elections show Trump’s enduring power. These were primary elections for state senate. So VERY low turnout. Huge spending plus Trump name led to wins. For US House, Trump can influence primaries but that will just lead to bigger losses on November.

A few thoughts on the @istories.bsky.social story about "a report by an intelligence service of a European Union country on the real situation in the Kremlin and the condition of Vladimir Putin." 🧵 1) The basic idea that Putin is more concerned about his personal security seems plausible. 1/10

The nine states where Trump still has more approval than disapproval total only about 9% of the US population. The midterms are going to be lit.

As HR McMaster said, in Afghanistan we fought a one-year war, 20 times over. Now Trump says he can fight a sixty day war in Iran as many times as he wants to get around the War Powers clock.

I will be teaching a one-week case study methods course in St. Gallen, Switzerland June 15-19. Get info and sign up by May 10 here: gserm.org/programme/co...

Lots of speculation rn (such as this FT article) on what war in the Middle East means for the future of oil. What do we know about the conditions under which we reach tipping points in clean energy adoption? Political science can tell us a lot! 🧵

Oh. So they want Obama’s nuclear deal minus Obama’s signature. Got it.

They’re telling me a great empire will be destroyed if I attack Persia. Even the oracles who don’t like me very much, very nasty, they all said to me, “Sir, it’s one of the great empires, and it’ll be destroyed. And all because you attacked Persia.” That’s what they’re telling me.

The is the federal government telling news stations to provide favorable coverage of the war or their licenses will be pulled. A truly extraordinary moment. We aren't on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT. Act like it.

If we made the green energy transition this war would be unthinkable and these authoritarians wouldn’t be in power — not in the US, not in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia, not in Russia. Hydrocarbons are killing our freedom and just plain killing us.

My latest on the Iranian threat to the Strait of Hormuz in @foreignaffairs.com www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/hormuz-...

“Gulf states can no longer believe the United States can or will protect them from existential threats. And even as they are forced to openly cooperate with Israel in its war, they increasingly view it as a threat.” My new piece on the Gulf and the Iran war. foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/05/i...

Excellent piece on the profound changes that the AI tsunami is bringing to social science research: www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

Very good rapid reaction by @professormusgrave.bsky.social One caveat: we don't really know whether a country like Iran is a paper tiger until it's tested in war. Maybe it will collapse. Still would be bad. musgrave.substack.com/p/an-unpopul...

These are maximalist aims. A country is at its most dangerous backed into a corner facing an existential threat, which Trump appears to have unleashed. What is the off-ramp from the escalation ladder here? 2/ www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/w...

Disappointed and saddened by DOD decision to end decades of mutually beneficial collaboration between our nation's military officers & our civilian universities and think tanks. A loss for both communities with negative long-term implications for national security and civil-military relations.