Aware of how little sharing things here matters, does it anyway. UNCA ATMS | MEM Duke Universtiy. Former Climate Advisor @RoyCooper. Opinions my own.
Durham, NC
Joined August 2019
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Yikes. Gonna be a tough time when GOP staffers realize that Trump gimmicks only worked because they were funny… because they involved Donald Trump.
Donald Trump running a McDonalds drive thru? Pretty funny! Random GOP politician? 😐
This is why “improve state capacity so projects can get done faster” is a core YIMBY pillar!
Yes, people also don’t like it when things look different. But what they really hate is knowing that when construction starts they’re going to be inconvenienced for a long time!
At the end of the day, politics is very simple and always has been. People like leaders who seem thoughtful, open to new perspectives, and understand why issues are important to voters. Typically that leads to some interesting, unique takes.
Hard part is giving that impression.
So much of all of this seems to be tech leaders failing to reconcile their ego and mortality; constantly needing to maximize the efficiency of every moment.
Naturally, spending 5-10 whole minutes reflecting on their child’s personality doesn’t pass cost/benefit.
Conor Mulderrig retweeted
In the rush to build data centers, companies are starting to use their own off grid gas generators. This results in much higher emissions – 60% to 80% – compared with using their local electricity grid and risks locking in longer-term fossil dependence.
Conor Mulderrig retweeted
America is number one. At killing pedestrians.
But we can’t redesign streets to be safer because it might slow down emergency response. To the already-dead pedestrian. Caused by the street design.
Which is why if it flips, no matter what, filibuster needs to go. Keeping it not only amplifies the already built in boost to rural, conservative states but lets congress act like cowards and deprives voters of the results they voted for.
Take it from @LPDonovan: "'Structurally, the Senate is built to be Republican, and the question is whether this wave can breach that levee,' said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist. 'It is incredibly hard.'" nytimes.com/2026/10/24/us/po…
Hot take: A stable block of non-polarized voters that have truly no idea what is happening in politics and don't see that knowledge as personally defining, but still show up to vote based on their lived experience, are essential to a functional democracy.
New: Low-info voters, who put Trump in the White House, now look even more anti-Trump than high-info voters, and give Dems bigger margins on the generic ballot.
1 out of 3 Trump voters who can't name the party in charge of Congress now back Dems for 2026
gelliottmorris.com/p/poll-lo…
Given how rare they were to begin with, you have to imagine that more experience with deployment/management and continued safety improvements ends up making battery fires fade as a concern similar to people early electrical appliances shocking people, but much faster.
“Battery fires are like shark attacks: frightening events that loom cinematically large in the American psyche and almost never actually happen.” As US grid batteries surge, risk of fires plummets @CanaryMediaInc canarymedia.com/articles/bat… #energy #BESS #batteries
I'm not sure how big of a difference this ends up making tbh -- gotta think they pulled $ because the cake is baked -- but making a few Rs in newly gerrymandered, less red, but still "safe" congressional and NC House seats sweat a little more because they got greedy?🙂
Also this doesn't seem that bad? As podcasts get more and more popular, it makes sense that more people are going to use them for general entertainment purposes rather than the news/education that more highly engaged/educated early user audiences do. Bigger fish to fry.
Conor Mulderrig retweeted
I’m sure that Jared’s iPhone contents will get as much media coverage and commentary as Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The GRU hacked into Jared Kushner's iPhone. Dutch military intelligence (MIVD) then recruited a GRU spy who gave them access to the hacked phone. What MIVD discovered was that Kushner had access to two bank accounts --one Azerbaijani, the other Israeli --where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Emirati ruler Mohammed bin Zayed deposited money. It sounds like a slightly far-fetched episode of "Slow Horses," but it's real. And it proves just how eye-poppingly corrupt this administration was and continues to be as its "special envoy" decides the fate of tens of millions in Europe in the Middle East. Simply incredible reporting by Matthew Cole, drawn from his new book on Kushner. vanityfair.com/story/jared-k…
Conor Mulderrig retweeted
$901K into TX-23 👀
That’s the first time the main Dem Super PACs have put money into this race. And fundamentally, it SHOULD be competitive - super Latino Trump+15 seat, where the Republican is a chud gun Youtuber who primaried the incumbent R from the right.
JUST IN: The Democratic House Majority PAC drops another $61 million across 46 House races:
#FL25 $4,526,717
#MI07 $3,601,866
#MI10 $3,177,828
#FL22 $2,546,734
#PA01 $2,467,544
#NC01 $2,412,100
#TX34 $2,027,711
#PA07 $2,002,919
#ME02 $1,885,434
#AZ01 $1,828,114
#WA03 $1,813,747
#VA01 $1,776,773
#CA22 $1,719,982
#OH07 $1,716,070
#CO08 $1,691,455
#TX35 $1,486,518
#MI04 $1,482,371
#WI01 $1,469,949
#TX15 $1,439,066
#TX28 $1,364,156
#WI03 $1,347,720
#FL13 $1,212,588
#MT01 $1,205,934
#OH10 $1,120,073
#PA08 $1,076,024
#OH09 $1,075,012
#FL14 $955,684
#NC11 $946,359
#TX23 $901,439
#AKAL $775,396
#IA02 $773,120
#VA02 $770,980
#NJ07 $679,649
#KY06 $644,196
#OH15 $602,303
#CA13 $598,612
#NY17 $566,183
#AZ06 $557,396
#SC01 $530,737
#AZ02 $475,200
#IA03 $450,757
#PA10 $425,710
#NM02 $320,779
#CO05 $316,197
#NY04 $163,066
#IA01 $155,218
Once again, if this deal blows up, it won't be on policy grounds. It will be because the administration can't resist repeatedly jabbing their thumbs in the eyes of the people they are negotiating with.
SCOOP: Senate permitting deal on the rocks after Trump administration targets a fourth offshore wind project, New England Wind.
@SenWhitehouse tells my colleague @kelseytam “This is how you blow up a permitting deal.”
Conor Mulderrig retweeted
As good a time as any to mention that the state of North Carolina has had to sue the administration twice now to release money related to Hurricane Helene for Asheville and surrounding Western NC that was already authorized by Congress.
