Dr David R Brake
@drbrake.bsky.social
Journalist, policy wonk (transit, urban planning, EVs, climate, internet/media regulation), PhD (Media@LSE), dad, newly-adoptive Britghtonian
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
This is not a good take. Carney's move signals to the rest of Canada, and the world, that it's OK to keep building more fossil fuel projects.
Other countries will use this to justify doing the same.
Our children are watching, to see if we care about their futures. Do we?
Other countries will use this to justify doing the same.
Our children are watching, to see if we care about their futures. Do we?
November 27, 2025 at 9:27 PM
This is not a good take. Carney's move signals to the rest of Canada, and the world, that it's OK to keep building more fossil fuel projects.
Other countries will use this to justify doing the same.
Our children are watching, to see if we care about their futures. Do we?
Other countries will use this to justify doing the same.
Our children are watching, to see if we care about their futures. Do we?
OK it is "high concept" but I quite like its audacity.
Hope is here.
Help us beat Reform in May. Donate today ⤵️
Help us beat Reform in May. Donate today ⤵️
November 29, 2025 at 2:40 PM
OK it is "high concept" but I quite like its audacity.
Reform is clearly full of incorruptible men of the people!
November 28, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reform is clearly full of incorruptible men of the people!
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
The aim should be for individual, not institutional, accountability.
Did a university obviously violate the first amendment rights of its faculty to suck up to Trump? Don't seek to fine the university, *seek to jail its president and trustees.*
People make decisions, people bear consequences.
Did a university obviously violate the first amendment rights of its faculty to suck up to Trump? Don't seek to fine the university, *seek to jail its president and trustees.*
People make decisions, people bear consequences.
November 28, 2025 at 6:14 PM
The aim should be for individual, not institutional, accountability.
Did a university obviously violate the first amendment rights of its faculty to suck up to Trump? Don't seek to fine the university, *seek to jail its president and trustees.*
People make decisions, people bear consequences.
Did a university obviously violate the first amendment rights of its faculty to suck up to Trump? Don't seek to fine the university, *seek to jail its president and trustees.*
People make decisions, people bear consequences.
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Since Stephen Miller is in the midst of another of his Aryans-only trantrums, we should note that his family are 20th century immigrants from the shtetl of Antopol (Антопаль) then in the Hrodna gubernia of Russia. Applying his immigration rules, they would all have perished in the Holocaust.
Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle.
If my nephew’s ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out.
www.politico.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Since Stephen Miller is in the midst of another of his Aryans-only trantrums, we should note that his family are 20th century immigrants from the shtetl of Antopol (Антопаль) then in the Hrodna gubernia of Russia. Applying his immigration rules, they would all have perished in the Holocaust.
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Abraham Lincoln, 1855.
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
![I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor or degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:egd33s7iuqsmwlwab6mbtrqi/bafkreiaaicjid4jg3oongeah73ukqvwsqv4vwbp75q4f755nldtcfermhi@jpeg)
November 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Abraham Lincoln, 1855.
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/spee...
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
📣Urgent action: the UK's single largest carbon emitter, Drax, has applied for government support to power an AI data centre in Yorkshire by burning trees! 🌳🔥😮
🏭 Please call on your MP to say NO to Drax's AI data centre bid: actionnetwork.org/letters/urge... 🔥🌳🔥 #StopBurningTrees #AxeDrax
🏭 Please call on your MP to say NO to Drax's AI data centre bid: actionnetwork.org/letters/urge... 🔥🌳🔥 #StopBurningTrees #AxeDrax
Urgent action: Please ask your MP to say no to Drax’s AI data centre bid
The UK’s single largest carbon emitter, Drax, has applied with the University of York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority for public support to use its tree burning to power an AI data centre as pa...
actionnetwork.org
November 28, 2025 at 1:08 PM
📣Urgent action: the UK's single largest carbon emitter, Drax, has applied for government support to power an AI data centre in Yorkshire by burning trees! 🌳🔥😮
🏭 Please call on your MP to say NO to Drax's AI data centre bid: actionnetwork.org/letters/urge... 🔥🌳🔥 #StopBurningTrees #AxeDrax
🏭 Please call on your MP to say NO to Drax's AI data centre bid: actionnetwork.org/letters/urge... 🔥🌳🔥 #StopBurningTrees #AxeDrax
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
This is just gutter racism and it’s a standard that would never be applied to say, the descendants of Italian immigrants who fled the lawlessness of Southern italy post unification and now staff this fascist administration bsky.app/profile/publ...
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 1:21 PM
This is just gutter racism and it’s a standard that would never be applied to say, the descendants of Italian immigrants who fled the lawlessness of Southern italy post unification and now staff this fascist administration bsky.app/profile/publ...
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS
Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service
November 26, 2025 at 4:43 AM
OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS
Time for a wellness check on India and Nigeria!
To quantify: this is how much confidence the world has in Trump as a world leader.
www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...
www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...
November 28, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Time for a wellness check on India and Nigeria!
🧵It's extraordinary to hear the same arguments about the "squeezed middle" and taxing people removing their incentive to work from the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social as I've just heard from The Economist. Or from the Torygraph for that matter
November 28, 2025 at 11:18 AM
🧵It's extraordinary to hear the same arguments about the "squeezed middle" and taxing people removing their incentive to work from the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social as I've just heard from The Economist. Or from the Torygraph for that matter
Telling that I thought Guilbeault had already left. Glad he fought his corner on behalf of our future for as long as he did! Sad that his leaving will probably be seen as a PR coup by this administration!
November 27, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Telling that I thought Guilbeault had already left. Glad he fought his corner on behalf of our future for as long as he did! Sad that his leaving will probably be seen as a PR coup by this administration!
He’s asked some probing questions and while I’m not convinced his answers to a few implied criticisms (mainly "where does the money come from?") fully hold up, I loved that his answers are based on clearly articulated humanistic values that I share. That's what I want in a politician and party.
Radio 4 PM: “Green Party leader Zack Polanski gives us his view on the budget - and his plans for the future.”
⏩ jump to 32m40s:
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
⏩ jump to 32m40s:
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
PM - Net migration falls dramatically - BBC Sounds
UK net migration sees a significant drop in arrivals for work and study.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 9:37 PM
He’s asked some probing questions and while I’m not convinced his answers to a few implied criticisms (mainly "where does the money come from?") fully hold up, I loved that his answers are based on clearly articulated humanistic values that I share. That's what I want in a politician and party.
And of course the article's purpose? "This work presents a novel AI-based framework for ASD diagnosis and parental support".
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
November 27, 2025 at 7:57 PM
And of course the article's purpose? "This work presents a novel AI-based framework for ASD diagnosis and parental support".
Nothing establishes Canada's green credentials like a bitumen pipeline. Thoughtful of him to wait until after #COP30 to avoid embarrassment...
Carney caved on virtually all of Smith's demands. Updates to come.
BREAKING: Alberta gets its way in deal with Ottawa
A newly signed memorandum of understanding gives Alberta almost its entire list of demands, from the removal of regulations to the fast-tracking of a pipeline.
www.nationalobserver.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Nothing establishes Canada's green credentials like a bitumen pipeline. Thoughtful of him to wait until after #COP30 to avoid embarrassment...
🧵I usually have at least a little respect for @economist.com takes but its UK budget podcast was disappointing. Eg focus on how it "hits household spending" when the net impact on most will be neutral or positive.
www.economist.com/podcasts/202...
www.economist.com/podcasts/202...
Growth negligence: Britain’s budget
Also on the daily podcast: a revealing meeting with an Indian political force and your best job-interview questions
www.economist.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:53 PM
🧵I usually have at least a little respect for @economist.com takes but its UK budget podcast was disappointing. Eg focus on how it "hits household spending" when the net impact on most will be neutral or positive.
www.economist.com/podcasts/202...
www.economist.com/podcasts/202...
I checked out @brianphillips.bsky.social's other recent work and this piece was a letdown - mainly because it does not deliver on the headline... which is also grammatically incorrect! Probably @theringer.com.web.brid.gy's fault though. www.theringer.com/2025/11/04/t...
November 27, 2025 at 2:55 PM
I checked out @brianphillips.bsky.social's other recent work and this piece was a letdown - mainly because it does not deliver on the headline... which is also grammatically incorrect! Probably @theringer.com.web.brid.gy's fault though. www.theringer.com/2025/11/04/t...
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
For those unfamiliar, this involves:
- Cutting down trees that have sucked up carbon as they grew
- Burning them for energy
- Capturing the carbon that results from burning
- Transporting the carbon
- Injecting it underground
- Guarding it for the next few thousand years at least
- Cutting down trees that have sucked up carbon as they grew
- Burning them for energy
- Capturing the carbon that results from burning
- Transporting the carbon
- Injecting it underground
- Guarding it for the next few thousand years at least
NEW | A single carbon removal project at a biomass power station In the UK could cost £30 BILLION in government subsidies.
This would cost more than the UK government plans on spending for carbon capture programmes over 25 years.
https://loom.ly/XibxT4k
This would cost more than the UK government plans on spending for carbon capture programmes over 25 years.
https://loom.ly/XibxT4k
November 27, 2025 at 10:48 AM
For those unfamiliar, this involves:
- Cutting down trees that have sucked up carbon as they grew
- Burning them for energy
- Capturing the carbon that results from burning
- Transporting the carbon
- Injecting it underground
- Guarding it for the next few thousand years at least
- Cutting down trees that have sucked up carbon as they grew
- Burning them for energy
- Capturing the carbon that results from burning
- Transporting the carbon
- Injecting it underground
- Guarding it for the next few thousand years at least
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Wow. BBC journalists are now not even allowed to report the censored line from my Reith Lecture, that Trump is “the most openly corrupt president in American history.”
You can hear how carefully they’re forced to tiptoe around it. So chilling...
You can hear how carefully they’re forced to tiptoe around it. So chilling...
November 27, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Wow. BBC journalists are now not even allowed to report the censored line from my Reith Lecture, that Trump is “the most openly corrupt president in American history.”
You can hear how carefully they’re forced to tiptoe around it. So chilling...
You can hear how carefully they’re forced to tiptoe around it. So chilling...
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
property rights, boo hoo. give us the fast train!
Critics worry about Liberal plan to fast-track high-speed rail | CBC News
In an effort to halve the approval time for Canada’s new high-speed rail network, the Liberal government is streamlining how it expropriates land in a way that some say could compromise property right...
www.cbc.ca
November 26, 2025 at 10:01 PM
property rights, boo hoo. give us the fast train!
Also liking Labour on the environment. If only they would admit to doing good instead of being embarrassed about it!
Huge news from the UK today: after UN climate talks in which there was a massive fight over language on fossil fuels, the UK government today announced that it will in fact be keeping many millions of barrels of oil & gas in the ground. Deeds rather than just words for a change! 🧵
November 26, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Also liking Labour on the environment. If only they would admit to doing good instead of being embarrassed about it!
Ironically this was a very good Labour budget that did some of the right things for the right reasons. If only they'd been honest about needing to do it before the election and didn't have to be forced to do some of the best bits (removing two child cap). Tax and spend is what the country needs!
November 26, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Ironically this was a very good Labour budget that did some of the right things for the right reasons. If only they'd been honest about needing to do it before the election and didn't have to be forced to do some of the best bits (removing two child cap). Tax and spend is what the country needs!
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
REPORTER: What kind of concessions is Hitler and the Germans going to have to make?
CHAMBERLAIN: The big concession is they stop fighting and they don't take any more land.
CHAMBERLAIN: The big concession is they stop fighting and they don't take any more land.
REPORTER: What kind of concessions are the Russians going to have to make?
TRUMP: The big concession is they stop fighting and they don't take any more land
TRUMP: The big concession is they stop fighting and they don't take any more land
November 26, 2025 at 12:46 AM
REPORTER: What kind of concessions is Hitler and the Germans going to have to make?
CHAMBERLAIN: The big concession is they stop fighting and they don't take any more land.
CHAMBERLAIN: The big concession is they stop fighting and they don't take any more land.
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Frustrating to see the fuel duty cut extended again. This is a policy that benefits the richest households much more than the poorest as they spend more on petrol. That's without even accounting for the environmental impact.
November 26, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Frustrating to see the fuel duty cut extended again. This is a policy that benefits the richest households much more than the poorest as they spend more on petrol. That's without even accounting for the environmental impact.
Every time I saw any of the people mentioned it was always obliquely and I never really understood what this whole thing was all about. Now I do. Though I wish I didn't. But Brian Phillips is that rare journalistic trifecta - a brilliant stylist who also writes clearly and researches thoroughly.
People are calling my lede here "appalling," "nightmare fuel," "actively evil," and "a desecration of the human spirit"
The Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Affair Is Messier Than We Ever Could Have Imagined
Inside the most important, and also least important, story of our time
www.theringer.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Every time I saw any of the people mentioned it was always obliquely and I never really understood what this whole thing was all about. Now I do. Though I wish I didn't. But Brian Phillips is that rare journalistic trifecta - a brilliant stylist who also writes clearly and researches thoroughly.