Jan Fichtner

As an IR professor, it's depressing that this is outperforming all others as the best theory of US foreign policy

Probably to Cuba

We need your drone interceptors for our war, but we won’t thank you and our propaganda will claim that we made them.

Interesting to think that Donald Trump may have, completely inadvertently and at a horrific cost, finally woken up the world to how urgent it is we get off our dangerous addiction to fossil fuels.

A double whammy for MAGAs.

Many voted for Trump based on two promises:
- no more foreign wars
- I'll bring down prices

He's reneged on both, spectacularly.

A uniquely uneducated and reckless Administration in the US. I can't imagine that Republican voters will like skyrocketing gas prices - but then again they are getting brainwashed constantly.

7/ Saudis, Emiratis, Qataris want to end the war quickly. Oil and gas production is being shut in. Their data centres are being bombed.
To deliver pain to Trump via the AI tech lords, they’re indicating they will start pulling back their vast foreign overseas investments.
bsky.app/profile/70sb...

5/ The enemy gets a vote. Iran is now delivering pain to Trump via multiple paths
(1) Gulf Kings
Well, How Do you Protect the Gulf Kingdoms without Air Defense Radar? In the middle of last week, Iran knocked out every single Gulf THAAD radar:
buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...
bsky.app/profile/70sb...

California’s solar and batteries can now produce almost twice the constant output, day and night, as its nuclear plant, at the same reliability as the nuclear plant

- but faster, cheaper, cleaner, and safer than the nuclear plant

www.youtube.com/shorts/pGwQu...

From Tehran: "It’s catastrophic. The smoke has entered our homes, the flames are still rising and it feels like the sun is shining… The flames are so bright the highways look like it’s day time. So bright but doesn’t feel right... Help please!”

An Özdemir win would matter in another sense too. 7 decades after the first "guest workers" came to the federal republic, he would be the first minister-president of a German state to have Turkish roots. It wasn't a big factor in the campaign - people just like him (⬇️) - but is a moment nonetheless.

Polls have closed in the first of this year's five German state elections, in prosperous Baden-Württemberg. It's looking like a remarkable win-from-behind by the Greens under @oezdemir.de. Full results over the course of the evening.

This is hands down one of the funniest German politics election results in decades.

If BaWü CDU was a football team it would blow a 10 point Meisterschaft lead in the final month of every season

The Greens are expected to retain the job of leading the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, home to much of Germany's car and engineering industry.
New. Cem Oezdemir is set to be the first ever Ministerpräsident with Turkish origins, 65 years after the first guest workers arrived.

He really did say this and has made many similarly frivolous statements in the last years. That he (and likeminded elites) have no clue about the dynamics of conflict, let alone human affairs is so very evident. It is exceedingly naive to simply believe what these men with vested interests proclaim.

The Hill United CEO: Airfare likely to rise as jet fuel prices surge United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby warned this week that soaring jet fuel prices tied to conflict in the Middle East could soon push airline... . 4 hours ago Aerospace Global News Airfares could rise as Iran conflict drives soaring fuel costs and flight detours Airlines face rising jet fuel prices and costly rerouting around Middle East airspace after US-Israel strikes on Iran, and may raise... . 1 day ago BBC Surge in jet fuel prices could push up air fares, analysts warn Disruption to supplies from the Gulf, in the wake of the US and Israeli air strikes on Iran, has pushed the cost of aviation kerosene up by... . 1 day ago Українські Національні Новини (УНН) War with Iran triggered a sharp rise in fuel prices in the US УНН Economy ✎ Gasoline prices in the US rose by 11% due to the conflict with Iran and oil at $90. This creates political risks for... . 15 hours ago Simple Flying Airfare Warning: United CEO Says Ticket Prices Will Rise ‘Quickly’ As Fuel Costs Skyrocket As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, airlines brace for the impact on their pocketbooks, with United CEO warning of rising...

Public service announcement: this is a FOSSIL FUEL CRISIS

Not an 'energy crisis'. People need energy: it keeps them alive. This is a crisis due to forced dependency on the most unreliable and unstable fuel product in human history.

THIS IS A FOSSIL FUEL CRISIS.

Hey, remember how I said that my third friend in the oil industry didn’t respond? Yeah they got back to me.

It’s not looking good, team

Iran's FM condemns US attack on Qeshm's freshwater desalination plant, warns of grave consequences US President Donald Trump announced that Iran promised not to attack its neighbours anymore

Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant.
If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination.
timesofoman.com/article/1691...

How Will the War in Iran Affect Your Utility Bills? - Inside Climate News Conflict in the Middle East could have major repercussions for U.S. electricity and natural gas prices. Some states, like Pennsylvania, are particularly vulnerable.

I paid $0 down & the monthly cost of my solar panels is LESS than I paid for electricity & gasoline (my EV will cost less over 5 yrs than a gas car). And, our new electric space heaters have reduced our natural gas use.

Get your solar panels installed ASAP!

insideclimatenews.org/news/0503202...

QAnon luminaries say they’ve drafted the Trump “national emergency” declaration to scuttle the midterm elections:

Intel report warns large-scale war ‘unlikely’ to oust Iran’s regime A classified U.S. report doubts that Iran’s opposition would take power following either a short or extended U.S. military campaign.

BREAKING NEWS: U.S. Intelligence Community Tells Trump His Plan for Iran Will Fail

This is America First in combination with Energy Dominance: starve the rest of the world, while forcing them to buy your LNG at inflated prices

Chartbook 436 Unseasonal war. How the US-Israeli war on Iran threatens the global agricultural cycle. One impact of the war being waged by the US and Israel against Iran that is not getting as much attention as it deserves, is the impact on the global supply of fertilizer.

8/ Read Tooze on why the Fertilizer shock during planting season is going to cause a lot of pain. Guess where most people in the world live & farm - Asia!

Most people don't know -I didnt!- Gulf countries as a whole are 2nd largest fertilizer exporters
adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...

Destabilizing Europe and Asia quite likely was a calculated secondary objective of this insane Iran war started by Trump & Co.

The case against stablecoins Podcast Episode · Unhedged · 5 March · 27m

Great to hear @bhgreeley.bsky.social chat stablecoin w/ K&R. Thoughtful articulate and funny. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/u...

Studie: Erderwärmung geht seit 2015 wirklich schneller voran Hinweise gab es schon, nun bestätigt eine neue Studie des Potsdam-Instituts für Klimafolgenforschung: Die Erde hat sich in den vergangenen zehn Jahren deutlich schneller erwärmt als in den Jahrzehnten...

Guter Bericht der Tagesschau zu unserer neuen Studie, gemeinsam mit dem US-Statistiker Grant Foster.
Die Messdaten belegen: die Erderwärmung hat sich sogar beschleunigt. Jede Verzögerung beim Ausstieg aus fossiler Energienutzung halte ich für unverantwortlich.
www.tagesschau.de/wissen/klima...

Pretty difficult to refute a single thing in this perfect assessment of where the f**k we are, from @iandunt.bsky.social:

Chart showing European gas, Brent crude oil and stock prices since the start of 2026. Gas prices are up 80% (mostly since the Iran invasion), oil prices up 40%, and stocks have barely changed

One way in which a 2026 energy crisis* might be different to 2022: it would likely affect oil as well as gas.

In 2022, the main issue was gas, which mainly affected electricity and heating bills.
If oil spikes as well, expect transport and more industrial production to face problems

from the point of view that the best we can hope for is deep incompetence mixed with malice, this is good. Mullin has even more of the first than Noem did.

How Fossil Fuel Disruptions Lead to Booms in Solar and Batteries Past oil crises forced countries to cut fuel use and pay high prices, but now falling prices of clean tech offer another solution.

Past fossil-fuel price spikes left import-dependent countries with two options: pay up or cut fuel use. Now there is an alternative in solar and batteries.

I looked at recent examples in Europe, Pakistan, Cuba to glean what might happen with the war on Iran.

🎁🔗 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...