Thomas Nash

@RickPetree @PhillipsPOBrien Well, maybe that’s the whole goal of Trump’s apparently crazy posts, fights wth the Pope, manifestly unconstitutional policies, doge, wars,… as a misdirection to what is really going on

I’ve said before that the most surprising thing to me about Americans’ reaction to the Trump era has been the relative indifference to flagrant corruption. I didn’t expect it and I don’t understand it. It’s the deadliest poison they’ve injected into the Republic’s bloodstream.

@petergyang And once you get registered and learn all the apps, it is easy to function even knowing virtually no Chinese. Don’t need an eSIM. Roaming with US carriers plans is reasonable and bypasses the Great Firewall.

@petergyang We had exactly the same impressions (as non Asians yet) over Christmas/New Year in Shanghai. Was in Chengdu last spring, also amazing, modern, spectacular food and more laid back and friendly even than Shanghai.

Some initial observations about Shanghai after not being back for 10 years: 1. The city is incredibly modern - more so than New York and even Tokyo. It's funny riding modern subways and trains here and reading about how California has to shut down the BART/Caltrain due to budget cuts on X. 2. Apps run everything - Wechat, Amap (Google Maps), Dianping (Yelp), Alipay, etc. Basically, there's a Chinese equivalent of every US app and more. 3. Meals are probably 1/3 the price of the US and absolutely delicious. There's ALOT of variety in Chinese regional cuisines. Funny enough almost every restaurant has a Dianping coupon you can use to get free desserts. I like my spicy food :) 4. Fewer foreigners than I expected and concentrated in a few areas. Coming from the US, it's just a pain to have to get a visa, set up eSim, download all the apps, etc. You have to do alot of research before coming here. 5. The overhead highways kind of ruin the vibe a little with the cityscape. 6. People still smoke alot, but appears to be mostly older generation. 7. Speaking of the old generation, they know to have fun. Went to Fuxing park and many elders dancing, playing yoyo, singing, and more. 8. In contrast, from what I hear, the younger generation is working super hard and many college grads cannot find jobs are are "tang ping" (lie flat). It's great to be back, will share more later.

@KaneshieGeek @obretix Yup. Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center (enriched U storage tunnels) 16 miles away.

@obretix Is it close to any nuclear facility?

USAF F-15E crash site geolocated ~25km south of Isfahan google.com/maps?ll=32.381…

To add to @ColinPClarke post….. It’s just mystifying, inexcusable, and a bit outrageous all at once that anything is a “surprise” now. It’s Iran FFS-the problem set of all problem sets. We had an entire Mission Center at CIA devoted to this. DoD war gamed Iran basically…well, forever. Btw-raising these issues is not unpatriotic. I’m fully onboard Team America. Always. That’s ingrained in my DNA, after nearly three decades in the IC. What I’m not good with is blindly accepting poor performance and no accountability (senior civilian and military planners alike). We r in reactive mode too much and it’s incredible-the Strait of Hormuz, the Huthis, aircraft getting hit in unhardened shelters, Iranian strikes in the Gulf, lack of an uprising - all were obviously going to be issues. So what happened at senior levels at CENTCOM? And In the IC? If we had actual congressional oversite, maybe we’d know. Did they warn admin, and were ignored? On that note-perhaps we need to stop always giving seniors at DoD and the IC a pass and just blaming Trump. I’ll always support the guy and gal on the ground in uniform or at the agency, they r just doing their jobs…tip of the spear, executing policy, I’ve been there many times, I did what I was told . …but maybe consider leadership levels in DoD and the IC don’t get such a pass. 🤷🏻‍♂️… I’ve also noted that former senior US military who r now in media can’t seem to critique senior DoD in uniform either. That needs to change, I’d suggest. Maybe Caine and Cooper (and Ratcliffe) are as responsible for the conduct and planning of the war as Trump and Hegseth. The good and the bad. And to reiterate, raising this is not unpatriotic. This is America. Holding govt accountable is imperative to a democracy.

@yashar Days or weeks? More like a month…or two. And quite a perimeter to defend with quite a lot of troops (on the ground). Dubious this is in the cards without an unconditional surrender.

BREAKING via WSJ President Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, a complex and risky mission that would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer.  Teams of U.S. forces would need to fly to the sites, likely under fire from Iranian surface-to-air missiles and drones. Once on site, combat troops would need to secure perimeters so that engineers with excavating equipment could search through debris and check for mines and booby traps.  The extraction of the material would likely need to be conducted by an elite special operations team specially trained to remove radioactive material from a conflict zone. The highly enriched uranium is likely contained in 40 to 50 special cylinders that resemble scuba tanks. They would need to be put into transportation casks to protect against accidents. That could fill several trucks. Unless an airfield was available, a makeshift one would need to be set up to bring equipment in and take the nuclear material out. The entire operation would take days or even a week to complete. Full Story: on.wsj.com/4m43Y9G

Brilliant cartoon from 'award winning' Canadian, Michael de Adder! 🤣🤣🤣 🎯 Cr: @deAdder 🙏♥️ Pass it on! ⤵️

@NickCho Yup

So much. Is it that hard to believe?

@Weather_West Insane

Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, & disaster research underpinning half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, & increased resilience.

I want to thank my colleagues for reminding all of us that those who serve this nation swear an oath not to one man, but to the constitution.

incredible photo that's definitely worth at least 1,000 words from Andrew Harnik of Getty

@baseballot Those statistics say nothing about the degree of gerrymandering. Imagine a state with an absolutely flat distribution of red & blue voters, 50.9% Party A & 49.9% Party B everywhere. A fair NOT gerrymanderered map will result in Party A winning 100%. Your post is disingenuous.

*taps the sign*

It’s true. Vermont and Delaware are the most gerrymandered states in the union.

An Iranian boy from Mashhad won a prize on a TV show and traveled 920 km to Tehran to claim it, only to find out it was a free ticket back home—his laughter went viral!

News flash: People in STEM already immerse themselves in literature, philosophy, and art, and think deeply about the human dimension of their work. Far more often than professors in social theory learn calculus or thermodynamics or quantum theory.

Every American should read this ACLU lawsuit about what is happening in California. It is the stuff of dystopian nightmares. This is not immigration enforcement. It is positively stuffed with videos and articles documenting racial profiling on a scale unseen since Jim Crow.

The National Security Council provides structure for methodical and thorough decision making in the Situation Room. As it stands, Trump’s chaotic approach has depleted the NSC staff, and broken the NSC process, leaving decision makers in the Situation Room at severe risk of making poor decisions. foxnews.com/politics/insid…

I detest the framing of US foreign policy debates as between "hawks" and "doves." The current discussion about whether to bomb Fordow is an excellent example of the limits of the oversimplified dichotomy. Instead, can we please discuss what strategies advance US interests and which do not?

@ikessandwiches Ex-boyfriend

We can guess how old you are by what you order at Ike's

@dschwa8059 I had a chance to work with Dick Garwin briefly, and I agree with Fermi.

RIP Richard Garwin, aged 97. I cannot do him justice in a tweet - suffice it to say that Fermi once claimed that Garwin was the only true genius he ever met. The NYT obit is pretty thorough. For some reason, however, X does not allow me to post a link. Ugh.

California wants to kill rooftop solar — all because officials were duped by this flawed theory sfchronicle.com/opinion/openfo… via @sfchronicle