Rob Shum

link.springer.comDemocracy or Carbon Oligarchy?This book analyzes climate and energy policy across major fossil-fuel producers, revealing how institutions shape reform and counter vested interests.

2 Aug

Replying to @robshum.bsky.social

Carbon Oligarchy: The Book is out now! Get yours today, at link.springer.com/book/9783032... Receive a 20% off discount, with limited promo code: PALAUT 🔌💡 (32/n)

nytimes.comFort Hood Shooter’s Execution Will Be Public and Streamed Live, Pentagon SaysIf carried out, the public execution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad set for Dec. 3 would be the first in modern U.S. history.

Sometimes, to preserve civilization, you have to descend into barbarism?

Rachel Maddow@maddow.bsky.social

“…most commonly carried out in a handful of countries including Iran, North Korea and the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan. “releasing video of executions is most often associated with extremist militant groups like the Islamic State...” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/u...

Rob Shum reposted

The news just since I left work: -A planned livestream of an execution by firing squad -Trump basically trying to incite a pogrom against Somalis Nothing mysterious or complicated about what's happening.

politico.euA climate nightmare lurks in the Atlantic. Europe is starting to pay attention.A slowdown of ocean currents that would disrupt life on the continent on an unthinkable scale.

(Western) Europe faces a pincers-movement two-front-war between Russia and AMOC-collapse, as well as finite resources. The geopolitical choice of the 21st-century is not so much “guns vs. butter” as much as “guns vs. climate-mitigation/adaptation”.

Zia Weise@ziaweise.bsky.social

A climate nightmare lurks in the Atlantic. Europe is starting to pay attention. Just out — my long read on European governments waking up to the threat of a possible collapse of the AMOC, the ocean currents that keep our continent's climate mild: www.politico.eu/article/clim...

Rob Shum reposted

In an authoritarian regime, people publicly debase themselves to signal loyalty to the ruler

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

God everything is so DUMB.

Rob Shum reposted

projects.propublica.orgMore Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublicaThe government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...

ProPublica@propublica.org

NEW: The Trump administration keeps denying and downplaying that immigration agents have been detaining Americans. It’s wrong. We’ve found more than 500 U.S. citizens have been held against their will, including handcuffed or held at gunpoint.

as.ft.comThe EU has more bark but lacks bite towards ChinaGermany’s apparent shift towards trade belligerence is unfocused and unproven

“Everyone has a battle plan for trade war until they get retaliatory punches in the face.”

Alan Beattie@alanbeattie.bsky.social

Today's Trade Secrets: another fine Merz EU've got Xi into.* The EU's quota deal on cars with China and the Franco-German paper on trade instruments don't add up to an industrial strategy. Show us the detail: show us the teeth. *this headline doesn't 100% make sense but I am very proud of it.

Rob Shum reposted

washingtonpost.comElon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegallyInvestors in Musk’s first company worried about “our founder being deported” and gave him a deadline for obtaining a work visa.

"For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law"

Schooley@schooley.bsky.social

Just thinking about this as the state harasses Ilhan Omar over 40 year old paperwork.

nytimes.comDying Patients Are Inundated by Misinformation. My Dad Was One of Them.Cancer patients are being persuaded to spend tens of thousands on unproven treatments by alternative-medicine clinics.

Welcome to the populist post-intellectual all-grifting-all-the-time economy.

Timothy McBride@mcbridetd.bsky.social

Dying Patients Are Inundated by Misinformation. My Dad Was One of Them. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/m...

Rob Shum reposted

Alan Beattie

@alanbeattie.bsky.social

Don't bomb Iran, you're welcome.

FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social

*TRUMP TO ASK TREASURY FOR WAYS TO CUT DIESEL PRICES: POLITICO

ft.comBig Tech signs voluntary AI safety deal with Trump

The Kellogg-Briand Pact for “A.i.”

Wessel van Rensburg@wildebees.bsky.social

Big Tech chiefs signed a voluntary, non-binding AI safety agreement at the White House, which Donald Trump called "morally binding" while declaring that firms will police each other.

The executive branch is trashing the constitution (just in the past day, a brazen attempt to defy the plain terms of laws re: health insurance access, for example), but, sure, run with this… 🗺️

FactPost@factpostnews.bsky.social

Tommy Tuberville: Many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community. It's terrifying.

cbsnews.comTrump cancels nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress, a move some lawmakers called illegalPresident Trump moved to cancel almost $1 billion in spending that was approved by Congress, marking the second time his administration has employed a rarely used tactic that some lawmakers in both pa...

The thing is, “illegality” is indeed just a state of mind in any society that has lost the rule of law.

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social

We’ve been in a constitutional crisis since Jan. 20, 2025 and a blue wave in November won’t fix it if Trump can just ignore legislation passed by Congress.

Rob Shum reposted

John Schwartz

@jswatz.bsky.social

“The honest truth is that — regardless of what this court does — Missouri will not be able to run an orderly 2026 general election,” she said, adding that “no option is ideal.” In other words, “I already set fire to the house,”the arsonist said; “You should let me loot it.”

nytimes.comSupreme Court Once Again Blocks Republican-Backed Voting Map in Missouri (Gift Article)A federal appeals court had sided with Republicans seeking to use redrawn congressional district boundaries to give their party an advantage in the midterms elections.

It really is hard to convey how the world of, say, Davos & TED Talks & the Long Now Foundation completely failed to anticipate the rise of a far-right mirror-image of themselves seizing the agenda and actually putting the world onto a *more* short-termist, extractive, rapacious, and venal path. 🗺️

Judah Grunstein@judah-grunstein.bsky.social

It's funny, I've been reading a lot of IR stuff from the 1990s/early 2000s. And while it's now cliché to dunk on the new approaches and possibilities evoked at that time as naive & utopian, the truth is that the next few decades really did see major changes in world politics and its practitioners.

Imagine if other countries, or the European Union, tried to cut separate deals and negotiate directly with individual US states… 🗺️

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Rob Shum reposted

Important on the change in tactics post-Minneapolis

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Rob Shum reposted

Jared Wesley

@jaredwesley.ca

You'll never hear me say that all proponents of direct democracy are fascists. But I have yet to meet a fascist who didn't love direct democracy. Ask Carl Schmitt.

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Republicans after Reagan: The Party of Administrative Burden.

Alan Beattie@alanbeattie.bsky.social

Trade Secrets today. Meet Hank. Hank was doing well until Trump abolished "de minimis", the $800 tariff-free import allowance. Now Hank's one-man operation is swamped with paperwork and has to pay duties whose level isn't even clear. Hank will vote Democrat in November. as.ft.com/r/6c4f1d86-a...

Rob Shum reposted

semafor.comExclusive: Paramount weighs tapping Musk for equity investmentA cash injection from SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk could reduce investor Larry Ellison’s financial burden and bolster the deal’s investor base.

Headline in 2015 about a foreign country: "Regime allies attempting to further consolidate media control"

Justin Baragona@justinbaragona.bsky.social

Welp. According to Semafor, David Ellison has discussed bringing Elon Musk on as an investor in Paramount's merger with Warner Bros., which could mean Musk could have a stake in CBS News and CNN. www.semafor.com/article/09/2...

Rob Shum reposted

Simon Lester

@simonlester.com

"Trump administration to welcome up to 17,500 more White South Africans as refugees" I know there's a lot going on, but this should be a bigger deal!

cbsnews.comTrump administration to welcome up to 17,500 more White South Africans as refugeesThe Trump administration is planning to welcome up to 17,500 additional White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees over the next 12 months, according to a notice sent to Congress.

Rob Shum reposted

apnews.comAP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal ordersU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...

22 Sept

Who else will they disappear next?

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social

If executive branch creates a system so that people under government control can be located and then just stops listing some people in that system — despite their still being under government control — that should be a five-alarm fire for the other branches, the states, and the public.

Rob Shum reposted

Scott L Greer

@scottlgreer.bsky.social

21 Sept

Secret police disappearing people

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

NEW: @apnews.com confirms that ICE has begun electronically "disappearing" people in the agency's custody who have final orders of removal. As of last week, anyone jailed by ICE with a final order of removal will NOT appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, making them effectively vanish.

Rob Shum reposted

Alan Beattie

@alanbeattie.bsky.social

It looks like one of those brass rubbing things you do in churches when you're a kid, except the sculptor left the relief in the furnace too long and it melted.

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social

It's supposed to be an arts center, they have been removing actual artwork and replacing it with this propaganda kitsch. 2/2

Rob Shum reposted

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Rob Shum reposted

Ann Monster Lipton

@annmlipton.bsky.social

@johnspringford.bsky.social

2 and 4 make me want to find an isolated cabin in the woods to live out my days

Timothy McBride@mcbridetd.bsky.social

Poll: Would this make you more or less likely to vote for a candidate? www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...

Rob Shum reposted

John Springford

Definitely not extremists

Tyron@tyron.bsky.social

Lmao, AfD fumbling their one shot at forming a state government in Saxony-Anhalt in the most predictable way possible

Rob Shum reposted

19 Sept

Makes me think of Stanislav Petrov, one of the greatest heroes in history. We're going to need to build systems that don't rely on people like him to stop a rush to judgment.

Max Kennerly@maxkennerly.bsky.social

Lot of issues here but one part that sticks out in light of the almost-attacked-a-Chinese-ship story today: people with very important jobs where lives are at stake have bought the hype and outsourced their whole brains to AI. We're going to see more and more of this. www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p...

Rob Shum reposted

Simon Lester

@simonlester.com

18 Sept

But what if the thing driving up gas prices is also undermining national security?

Headquarters@headquartersnews.bsky.social

Roger Marshall: I'm sorry gas prices are going up but your national security is more important than your pocketbook

Rob Shum reposted

Simon Lester

@simonlester.com

@judah-grunstein.bsky.social

Let's all commit to voting for smarter people.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Rick Scott: "With regard to destroying mankind, these companies need to do the right thing on their own. We're not going to get smart enough to regulate them. We're not going to get something done up here."

Rob Shum reposted

Judah Grunstein

futurism.comHow Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per MonthBrown Brothers Media is a media empire raking in millions of clicks with AI, fake writers, and plagiarism.

This reminds me of a story from 2020 of a couple guys from Eastern Europe who had identical sites, one ragebait for leftists, the other ragebait for MAGA, and they too had traffic that dwarfed major outlets. But they were employing staff writers to do the inventing and plagiarizing, iirc.

jon christian@jonchristian.net

NEW: We spent months investigating a little-known media startup called Brown Brothers Media, which buys legit news sites and turns them into AI-powered zombie content farms What blew my mind was its traffic -- it appears to be getting more readers than NPR or CBS News futurism.com/artificial-i...

newrepublic.comPhotographer Exposes Trump’s Kennedy Center Plan—and It’s a BombshellAnd a witness spotted a forklift repeatedly crashing into the building’s pillars.

But do we know the name of the horse that the mad emperor will put in the Senate next?

sixmile.bsky.social@sixmile.bsky.social

AFP photographer Brendan Smialowski captured a photograph through the window of Air Force One Wednesday night in which Trump can be seen looking at a large posterboard emblazoned with the words “KENNEDY CENTER DEMOLISH.” newrepublic.com/post/215532/...

hegemon.substack.comWe’re all going to die? What does IR theory say?global politics in the shadow of existential risk

Beware the Praetorian LLM?

Seva@seva.bsky.social

nytimes.comWorld Bank Courts Private Financing Amid Global Debt Burden (Gift Article)The World Bank president, Ajay Banga, has worked to make the development institution a magnet for private capital as donor nations face budget constraints.

“… In June, the World Bank overhauled a key part of its Climate Action Plan and scrapped its commitment to direct 45 percent of its spending to projects with climate benefits. …” 🌱 🗺️

Rob@robertferry.bsky.social

Meanwhile, The United States is the World Bank’s largest shareholder and its president, “Mr. Banga, a former executive at Mastercard and Citigroup, has managed to avoid Mr. Trump’s ire by emphasizing the importance of public-private partnerships and downplaying the urgency of climate change.”