Brian Cook

I always think of Bechtel first for big reactor construction, but maybe they aren't in the game as much anymore...

Which nuclear power vendor/contractor has the inside track or the ear of somebody, is the question I would be asking...

I will add to this that, at least in the United States for most of the last 100 years, the middle class has functioned as the ‘ruling stratum’, a concept that I believe comes from classical political philosophy. More to come, to make sense of the tariffs as class warfare.

Will you be offering any thoughts on Luke Kemp’s new book Goliath’s Curse?

Introducing the Realtime Techpocalypse Newsletter Documenting the ongoing collapse of civilization in realtime!

Friends! Today I'm launching the Realtime Techpocalypse Newsletter. It's motto is: "Stop doomscrolling and just read this!" I'll provide a weekly mix of news that isn't covered elsewhere, and commentary drawing from my unique background in eschatology.

www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/introducin...

Except for Massachusetts, unless you want to try to unseat one of the nine out of nine Democratic incumbents you don't like, such as Stephen Lynch.

Yes! Surveys suggest most people, including many who are very rich and many who are of limited means, see themselves as part of the middle class. This is in part because of the social status of the middle class as somehow best or most genuine, as in the American dream.

Using 2025 facts is not the home run advantage Lee Zeldin thinks it is.

That sounds right to me. I'm going to do a little follow up thread soon on the matter of classes and class politics in the United States from a liberal democratic theory perspective. Short version: we have social classes and class politics so how do we think about that for a good regime?

The Economics of Smoot-Hawley 2.0, Part I Tariffs will be very high as far as the eye can see. What does that mean?

"Crucially, what Trump is really waging is mostly a class war against middle- and lower-income Americans rather than a trade war against other countries. The hit from his tariffs to the typical family is much bigger than the hit to GDP." paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-econom...

How the DOE and EPA used and misused my research Elevating contrarian views while burying the actual science

"But the most egregious part of this whole process is the promotion of one-sided views by a small number of contrarian researchers while simultaneously suppressing the actual congressionally-mandated National Climate Assessment (NCA)." www.theclimatebrink.com/p/how-the-do...

Alas, very few because... bsky.app/profile/2nda...

Also, the French Third Republic was not great. We will need to do better if only we can get there.

Yep, and it would be for a THIRD republic. The first died in 1860. The second, already on life support for a while, died in 2024.

This senile lunatic needs to be removed from power ASAP

My Fourth Branch book is having a pretty good day. I guess I should have worked harder to promote it. Maybe not too late? idk

President Trump called into question the integrity of the Employment Situation report that the BLS released this morning. He accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of deliberately reporting false numbers to reflect poorly on this administration. This baseless, damaging claim undermines the valuable work and dedication of BLS staff who produce the reports each month. This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system. The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news. The Commissioner does not determine what the numbers are but simply reports on what the data show. The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference. The BLS uses the same proven, transparent, reliable process to produce estimates every month. Every month, BLS revises the prior two months’ employment estimates to reflect slower-arriving, more-accurate information. This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers. U.S. official statistics are the gold standard globally. When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science. We call on Congress to respond immediately, to investigate the factors that led to Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal, to strongly urge the Commissioner’s continued service, and ensure that the nonpartisan integrity of the position is retained. The statement from the President undermines these tenets and politicizes data which cannot and should not be used for political points.

"...escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence & integrity of the federal statistical system.

"The president seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.

"...firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit & undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics..."

This is great, but you better be citing my example of the BLS in just this way on pp 224-225 of the Fourth Branch book. 😉

The problem isn't that gov't data should automatically be assumed to be fake now.

It's that no one can presume that it *isn't* fake. We can no longer get economic numbers from the executive branch and accept them w/out independent verification. Which in many cases will be impossible.

Major changes I would look for:
-Changes in survey instruments, modeling assumptions, benchmark revisions that affect headline jobs figure
-Changes in scheduling of reports
-Evidence of pre-release internal access
-Withholding of technical notes
-Changes to OMB statistical policy directives (5/x)

I cover similar ground by sifting through the arguments about accountability, coordination, etc on pp 207-222 of my book proposing the creation of a fourth administrative branch.

Exactly. People will know whether or not they are employed or can’t find a job, no matter what the trump-untrusted stats might say. Anecdotal evidence, or local knowledge if you prefer, will be more trusted. Kind of what anarchism likes.

Hence, if democracy died, ***WE*** couldn't know, even if many of us do, because there's no mechanism for generating common knowledge in present political conditions. It would die, some of us would know, & others would come to think, "well, I guess this (camps, secret police, etc) is democracy now?"

This seems obvious but I think it bears saying often:

When leaders attempt to scrub public discourse of anything that makes them look bad, however accurate it might be, it means that they are scared and weak. They are terrified of the truth and of how the people might respond to it.

Never going to forgive these pieces of shit for letting all those federal workers, people who are far more dedicated to America than the losers in office, just get unceremoniously thrown out on the street with zero support.

For what it's worth, in my book on creating a fourth administrative branch under the Constitution, I use the BLS as a possible model for the political appointee structure for all administrative agencies in such a new fourth branch.

MarketWatch headline, "Exxon Mobil, Chevron say oil production booming and they're rolling in cash.

It's all good, folks!
It's all good...

Prospect Hill now in the City of Somerville, MA and a beautiful urban park and place of history education.

Bar chart showing 10 federal agencies with the most workforce reductions. The highest number is in the Department of the Treasury with 31,201 having left federal service.

The Partnership for Public Service has created a 'Federal Harms Tracker' to reflect the all-out assault on the federal civil service. They count over 148,000 who have left federal service so far.
ourpublicservice.org/federal-harm...

Ah, thanks for the correction of my misreading!