Sign in

Brad

@bradamj.bsky.social
478 followers 2.3K following 642 posts

Adventures in Seattle and the mountain west. Pedestrian.

PostsRepliesMedia
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
a simple way to understand how unserious we all are about the climate crisis (not just the US, but...) is that political entities that have the capacity to drive consumption decisions and bring down the cost of electrification and other low/negative carbon strategies have not systematically done it.
110
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
as it is set right now, future generations long from now will only remember the United States as the thing that was the greatest cause of the climate catastrophe that will reshape everything. Our failures will be studied and theory will be built to avoid what we are currently doing to our commons.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
how do we learn to build again? we are so used to homogenized culture, and free things, that building institutions of all sorts, many that will have to start small and quirky and weird in ways we often find off-putting, will be a major project of the rest of our lives.
000
Reposted by Brad
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/10/2026
Holy shit.
700260368586
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
my thinking is that obviously that most people do not live *in community* even at least partially. To walk a neighborhood, to take transit, to go to the library, not even a meeting, is to realize that things are generally okay, even great, and that even when they are not they are worth fighting for.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
it remains amazing we built the most impressive thinking system in history that has brought incredible insights and scientific breakthroughs, decentralized, incredibly diverse, and robust, and the power brokers just get to ignore it. in fact the systems may trap the best minds in bureaucracy.
100
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
the one special guy thing makes a lot of sense in the context of 30 years of rhetoric accepted by basically all corners of the political spectrum just saying 'we just need a businessman to fix it' and the guy who was literally branded as that kind of shake it up businessman being that special guy.
120
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
rahm out here parroting republican talking points about democratic socialists while the mayors of NY and Seattle put forward budgets with increased police spending. can we just ... not?
120
Reposted by Brad
Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sort of insane fact about how broken US urban planning is—America now spends more building *just the lights for roads and highways* than on all subways & ground mass transit combined Spending on roadway *pavement* is 18x transit spending
a graph of roadway and mass transit lights
502925795
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The number of legislators who are afraid voters are watching every vote closely so spurn their party on symbolic votes is insane. The public has no clue and you just burned your key electoral support and your chance at leadership. Nice.
011
Reposted by Brad
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
This is a good example of something that is entirely political (the government dislikes higher ed and foreign people) and has large economic impacts but will get less attention than "woke one" from our pundit class.
241183308
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Hoping the attacks on water infrastructure get a lot of coverage because us governments at all levels do magnificent things and we rarely have to engage with defending them.
000
Reposted by Brad
Scott Alspach @salspach.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Literally a week after Barnes was fired the hours of the CARE team were expanded from 12:00 PM - 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM - 1:00 AM. Firing Barnes got results fast! www.instagram.com/p/DboFnMosVVJ/
315941
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
we're running a deficit like it doesn't matter to have eternal infinite debt and also we culturally have decided that taxes are not community-building investments but punitive policies for people we do not like. not sure how we reconcile any of that.
020
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Bluesky proving itself worthy tonight.
010
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
it is a tell that climate change is not taken seriously by the left that large, rich, cities that could be spearheading huge climate addressing change just aren't. Parks maintenance is still done with 2 stroke engines. Concrete is not required to be net negative CO2. Every flat roof requires solar.
110
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
is there any way to get out of the debt trap? 40T bucks, hundreds of billions in interest each year. 1T deficit. What does. an honest balanced revenue system look like? I have been told lately this is crazy, but white sheeted - assuming no change in spending, how might you even collect an extra Tril
100
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
it seems like all of this tax discourse about removing taxes has completely lost the plot. taxes aren't supposed to be punitive things, they're part of a commitment to community. But since we're running 1t deficits, it obviously just feels like it is all meaningless and paying taxes is for jokers.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
It’s crazy making and president keeps pardoning the worst people and then says he has no idea about it.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
It is funny all the stress over congressional machinations when article 1 basically isn’t in effect.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
bluesky is obviously not reality, most people dont understand the intricacies of this, and GOP senators seemingly gleeful willingness to extend this into 2026 (!) mean that the actual structural impacts to the federal government are important to consider here. if it all hollows out, they win anyway.
100
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
it is something that the dems have now setup a vote on ACA subsidies that will be hurting pretty bad in December - but the amount of media mobilization to make that vote really hurt is just something thats extra hard in the current environment.
010
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
its just pretty lame that the entirety of the political press has just given up on the republicans being reasonable governing actors so it all just rests on democrats, who are currently without any real power. Just fundamentally wild. Meanwhile corp elites are investing like the dictatorship is on.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
one does not need to agree with mamdani to just appreciate a candidate who seems happy in the place they are running and wanting to make that place better. we've nationalized politics so much that we often forget to ask - to our detriment - why do you even want to represent this place?
100
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
So Nevada has a pretty entrenched bipartisan opposition to the yucca mountain nuclear storage facility, a relatively remote deep mine storage site, I’m sure open air testing here is gonna go over great.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
the republicans want to share the blame for the bad effects of the budget bill, especially on healthcare, by keeping the filibuster around. they could change the rules tonight and end the filibuster - even narrowly (e.g. 50+1 for situations when there is an imminent shutdown in less than 12 hours).
011
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
It’s not impossible for members of marginalized communities to commit violent acts, but it’s very unlikely because we have centuries of knowing how to handle ideologues coming for us. Community building and mutual aid is where we turn first. Basically never violence.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Gpt should be a liberating moment for writing.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
It’s as if we built a bunch of political play boxes for adults with fake knobs.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
If the top five thing that to use ai for continues to be rewrite very simple things that are barely longer than a prompt I’m not sure the tech is gonna catch on.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Looking forward to public water provision being called too socialist and woke.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Diving into how gpt works and it’s about as misunderstood in the zeitgeist as social media feeds, and both are really bad for understanding reality.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
It’s hard to see a city of 8m people have a political machine that should be modeling a future away from our current national trajectory doubling down on a nepo baby who is barely from the city, has a poor managerial track record, and is a serial sexual abuser and general asshole bully.
010
Reposted by Brad
James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
1/2 This is appalling in principle—and shocking in detail, if you Zoom in on specific parcels offered for rush sale. www.wilderness.org/articles/med... Eg (shown in dark green) Forest Service land people use for hiking, camping, horse-riding, general outdoors-ing in San Bernardino Mountains.
Map showing extent of US Forest Service land planned for commercial sale, under new budget bill.
36758437
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
the bad part is cutting funding for basically what exists as a safety net. the wild part is allocating more funding for camps for a nonexistent immigration crisis (really, we wouldn't be deporting lawfully here people if it was what they say). the sneaky awful part is undermining the rule of law.
220
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
so wild we have reached a point where government spending is just not considered real so that taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of the economy is just not talked about as a huge economy tanking thing.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
every person has an idea of what a leader is, but given the complexity of situations in the world, this archetype often wrong, or at least, wrong for the moment. unpacking our own assumptions that guide our preferences, especially in the workplace, is the only way to healthier more effective orgs.
000
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
since I do not understand how it works but see it behaving with as much confidence as the hype guy at my overvalued tech firm, I assume that ai will take over shortly, and probably should for the good or civilization or something.
020
Reposted by Brad
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
If we continue burning fossil fuels and warming the ocean, coral reefs will become a thing of the past.
theguardian.com
More than 80% of the world’s reefs hit by bleaching after worst global event on record
An ashen pallor and an eerie stillness all that remains where there should fluttering fish and vibrant colours in the reefscape, one conservationist says
38887305
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
a pretty durable personal opinion is that there are over 300m people in the United States, many of whom could if called upon lead reasonably well. The idea there are special people whose lack of values, ethics, or compassion nonetheless make it necessary they lead is dumb.
030
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
The fact that so many of the people that they’re disappearing without due process are lawful residents without criminal records should be a clue that the migrant crime wave hysteria was all made up. If they could find thousands of actual criminals they’d be going through public due process on tv.
020
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
The still rapid illegal destruction of much of the federal government is ongoing and is directly undercutting most of the rhetoric. A massive disaster amid many massive disasters.
010
Reposted by Brad
Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
This is an excellent piece on the current threat to regional universities, which educate and impact far more people than the Ivies, but are completely ignored in the legacy media and national debate.
propublica.org
A University, a Rural Town and Their Fight to Survive Trump’s War on Higher Education
The administration’s research funding and DEI cuts present an existential threat to regional public universities like Southern Illinois University, the economic backbone of the conservative rural regi...
313258
Brad @bradamj.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
We built the government by contract that we were told was important for nimbleness (it often is!) and it’s proving to be a vehicle to destroy government’s role in core services.
010