Rob Shum

Rob Shum

@robshum.bsky.social

Public policy ( #climate / energy policy, more specifically ) & IR prof (but also ex-🇨🇦 trade diplomat). PoliSciSky 🗺️, EnergySky 🔌💡, & GreenSky 🌱. Cf. same handle on also-ran microblog-sites. Book in banner now available: link.springer.com/9783032245755

3.9K followers1K following5.9K posts

Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

“… The counting of absentee ballots - the majority of them being votes cast by soldiers in the Israeli military - is set to begin at midnight Wednesday. Roughly 460,000 absentee ballots were cast in the previous election, the equivalent of nearly 13 Knesset seats. …” 🗺️

apple.newsWith 85.6% of votes counted, opposition wins 67 seats, including 19 for Arab parties — HaaretzEisenkot's bloc has won 48 seats, meaning they will need the support of both Arab parties in order to form a government. Arab politician Ahmad Tibi said that the opposition can form a government 'if i...

Rob Shum reposted

Jeff St John
@jeffstjohn.bsky.social

A new EDF analysis details how the Trump administration is directly or indirectly propping up nearly half the U.S. coal fleet with taxpayer-funded handouts, Clean Air Act exemptions, and emergency orders forcing retiring units to keep running: www.canarymedia.com/articles/fos... #energysky

canarymedia.comHow much are Trump’s pro-coal policies costing us?A new report finds nearly half of U.S. coal plants benefit from federal handouts and pollution exemptions, harming public health, our wallets, and the…

Rob Shum reposted

Dale Smith
@journodale.bsky.social

Speaking as an Albertan, I cannot roll my eyes hard enough every time someone insists that Albertans are a separate people because of their "work ethic" and "entrepreneurial spirit," as though it was their hard work and ingenuity that put the oil in the ground in the first place.

Steve Ricketts@stevericketts.bsky.social

i agree: eff off, Dinning and Toews "We have a long history of contributing more than our fair share because of our resource-rich province and the independent, hard-working, risk-taking folks that call Alberta home." sigh... here we go again thinking that Albertans are harder workers than others

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Andrew Wender Cohen
@awcohen.bsky.social
Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social

Just got an email announcing that Princeton is offering ChatGPT accounts to all undergrads next semester. Looking forward to other helpful innovations lIke giving them unlimited heroin or free handguns

Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

How does one label a libertarian mugged by reality? It’s a pity that “neoliberal” already has so many other connotations attached.

Bill Kristol@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social

"Musk is a dangerous individual and the fact that he controls SpaceX increases the national security risks. But the risks would exist no matter who controlled the company. If a wise trillionaire controlled SpaceX outright, it would still be an unacceptable risk." www.thebulwark.com/p/nationaliz...

thebulwark.comNationalize SpaceXLive by the government, get regulated by the government.

Rob Shum reposted

Nathan Newman
@nathansnewman.bsky.social

This is literally the end of the rule of law. If a President can pardon people committing crimes on his behalf - and the Supreme Court says he himself can't be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of his job - then the government becomes a lawless entity able to violate our rights without limit.

The Washington Sun@washingtonsun.com

New: White House attorneys are evaluating whether to issue mass pardons to junior staffers. https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/white-house-weighing-mass-pardons-for-junior-staff

washingtonsun.comWhite House Is Weighing Mass Pardons for Junior StaffConservative groups influential with the Trump administration have pressed for the preemptive acts of clemency.

Rob Shum reposted

Brendan Nyhan
@brendannyhan.bsky.social

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.

Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

(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...

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.

Rob Shum reposted

Brendan Nyhan
@brendannyhan.bsky.social
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.

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...
Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

“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.

as.ft.comThe EU has more bark but lacks bite towards ChinaGermany’s apparent shift towards trade belligerence is unfocused and unproven
Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

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.

Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

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.

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...

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.
Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

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.

Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

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

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.

This post is unavailable.
Rob Shum
@robshum.bsky.social

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...

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Brendan Nyhan
@brendannyhan.bsky.social

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...

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.

Rob Shum reposted

Brendan Nyhan
@brendannyhan.bsky.social

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

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.

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...

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

Brendan Nyhan
@brendannyhan.bsky.social

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...