iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Returning to the NYS Assembly chambers in the state capitol for the first time since leaving government, where it all began for me nearly six years ago to the day. Van Buren says hello.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

At long last, a biography on former UN Secretary General U Thant — by his grandson no less — is published. Looking forward to reading.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

We can all agree New York will have come a long way in our mayors and their Spanish-speaking ability.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Why do I overlay the elections data? To impress on everyone the fact that Mamdani, Cuomo, and Sliwa voters alike are beset by extreme weather crises, and that it is incumbent on our new mayor @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social to prioritize weather intelligence and infrastructural resiliency for all NY'ers

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

one in Hollis, Queens, at the cross-intersection of 204th St and 100th Ave, and the second in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, at Kingston Ave and Rutland Rd.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Yesterday, I had the idea to look at FloodNet, a joint collaboration between the New York City government, NYU, and CUNY to collect real-time flood sensor data and quickly detect urban flash flooding situations.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Throwback to the pumpkin I carved for the @aoc.bsky.social 2018 campaign during spooky season that year. Astonishing to witness how much New York’s political landscape has metamorphosed since.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

As governor, Andrew Cuomo shut down Indian Point, a three-unit nuclear power plant in Peekskill, NY. Consequently, median electricity prices in the state nearly doubled from $24.70 / MWh to $45.39 / MWh in 2023. Do not vote for Cuomo. freopp.org/whitepapers/...

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Looking back at old materials I created during my tenure at the New York State legislature, with the purpose of training the incoming chiefs of staff and legislative directors of the democratic socialist lawmakers elected in 2020 — including Zohran Mamdani’s staff.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

☀️ Although NYCEM has had a surge of hiring in recent years, most of these hires are driven by the City's delegating the response to the influx of asylum seekers to the city to NYCEM. Deliberate efforts must be made to increase the City's governmental capacity to address extreme weather hazards.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Some insights I found: 💵 The contours of funding for NYCEM are enormously driven by grantmaking from the federal Department of Homeland Security.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

I also discuss some of my thoughts on how our almost-certain-to-be Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his administration should prepare to protect New Yorkers from extreme heat in summers to come.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

☀️ NEW PIECE ☀️ Today's writing on my Substack, Alphabet Agency, is an analysis of New York City Emergency Management Department, the city's chief agency for coordinating disaster relief efforts.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Perks of having jobs in universities: getting surprised by free books I never asked for

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

when your city getting flooded inspires you to study and work even harder to build infrastructural and institutional resilience against extreme weather 😤

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

building my personal website and learning some pixel art along the way. can’t wait to launch in a few weeks 🙂

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Europe: *History happens again* Metternich: hur-durrr

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

This is the most disgraceful moment in American foreign policy in recent times. Long live Ukraine, long live Europe, long live liberal internationalist democracy. May there be light at the end of this epochal calamity.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

An unfortunate-named company

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Fascinating passage from “Chip War” on how the Volcker shock (21.5% rates) screwed over American semiconductor firms facing massive capex financing requirements. By contrast, Japanese DRAM firms had much cheaper capital

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

I'd love for you to read my latest piece, and if it resonates with you, please subscribe, leave a comment, and feel free to reach out! alphabetagency.substack.com/p/does-extre...

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

As universal as weather prediction may seem, even weather cannot escape geopolitics. The US and China are likely to be embroiled in yet another front of great power conflict: becoming a weather superpower.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

His research broaches critical questions on how climate dynamics, such as ENSO and teleconnections, can influence regional geopolitical tensions, such as militarized fishing disputes in the East and South China Seas.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

One theme from Toal's book that particularly resonated with me is in the shared themes between the climate movement and historical framing of geopolitics: namely, the notion that strategizing on climate action and foreign policy is done so as a "struggle for existence."

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Last year, I came across Gerard Toal's book "Oceans Rise, Empires Fall: Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe." It's the text that first motivated my foray into the intersection of climate change-induced extreme weather and foreign affairs.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

A year ago, I was a participant in the @leapstc.bsky.social Momentum Winter Bootcamp at @columbiauniversity.bsky.social, beginning an incredible journey into the world of climate modeling using machine learning. Now for 2025, I’m excited to be back as a coach for this year’s participants!

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

SideQuest w/ @fractaltechnyc creating a new universe :)

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Between Fred Rogers and Jimmy Carter I’m absolutely rocking the cardigan in 2025.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

A life spanning the ages. Our final titan of the 20th century, a link to the era of old. An American patriot, and a servant to humanity and God, now departed.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

cannot wait for my latest project to drop in 2025

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

My Goodreads this year. What’s your favorite book that you read in 2024?

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

One of the neglected stories of how Trumpism has ensconced itself into the American body politic is the trajectory of time spent in unemployment. We never returned to pre-2008 levels in ease of finding work after getting laid off.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I truly do feel for newly graduated Gen Z folks. Labor market woes go beyond market cyclicality and macroeconomic policy. At this point, it’s an atrophy of our business institutions, a dearth of those willing to invest in our young people, and a total disregard for tacit knowledge.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Great seeing Andrew Yang today!

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Hyun Song Shin: “…we need to analyze the global economy not in terms of an ‘island model’ of international economic interaction—but through the ‘interlocking matrix’ of corporate balance sheets—bank to bank.” (from Adam Tooze’s Crashed)

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Next time someone asks me if I’m bullish on AI, I’ll go “dropping this in chat”

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

America is a nation that once built, and must build again It is the only way to mitigate the climate crisis and achieve our decarbonization goals But our institutions are so broken, our permitting and procurement processes so dysfunctional, that we no longer build. From @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Between this and the NYT Jentleson piece on the alienating tendencies of the nonprofit advocacy coalition, it’s stunning to see all of the (IMO, correct) criticism of the Democratic Party infrastructure come to the fore all at ONCE All after years of trepidation of making these criticisms public.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Friday night book shopping. Much of the foreign policy literature theorizes about China sans the linkages vis-à-vis the Eurasian system — interested in the broader perspective. And lawfare interwoven with foreign affairs is really not something I’ve considered, but should have.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 22/03/2024

Great to finally meet one of my favorite scholar-diplomats on US-China relations, Dr. Kishore Mahbubani, President of the United Nations Security Council (2001-2002), and Permanent Representative to the United Nations from the Republic of Singapore (1984-1989, 1998-2004).

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 22/01/2024

Some cool things I got to do: presenting my legal research on nonprofit home care wage theft to the American Bar Association Section on Labor and Employment Law, Yale Law School students, and even have that work shared with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 22/01/2024

I’ve officially departed from my position as Legislative Director for the Office of NYS Assemblymember Ron Kim. My life in NY politics and government has been an eventful six years, but I’m working to transition back to my old line of work in applied physics, training to be a climate physicist.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 10/01/2024

Excited to be partaking in Columbia University’s LEAP (Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics) 2024 Momentum Bootcamp. Beginning a journey to realize a dream I’ve had since undergrad: learning to model the weather. #ai #physics #weatherforecasting #climate

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 09/01/2024

I am excited to be partaking in the Columbia University Center for Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics Winter'24 Momentum Bootcamp in Climate Data Science over the next two days. The timing could not be more perfect with the flooding we’re looking at here in NYC!

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 25/12/2023

Merry Christmas! My presents from me to me.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 15/10/2023

Had a great time at Yale Law School this past week, speaking to students in Professor Mike Wishnie’s Worker and Immigrant Advocacy clinic about criminal wage theft and 24-hour shift labor violence in NYC’s home care sector, and workers’ organizing to fight it.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 05/10/2023

I’ll be at the 2023 I-GUIDE conference at The Forum at Columbia University through Friday, to learn from scientists working on geospatial data modeling techniques to study climate change risks on physical infrastructure. It’s so wonderful being around STEM people again.

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David A. Lee @davidalee.bsky.social · 03/10/2023

Had the opportunity today to Zoom with FTC Chair Lina Khan on FTC et. al. v. Amazon, & the litany of work the FTC and state/municipal bodies are engaged in to protect consumers and curtail corporate power. Thanks to the State Innovation Exchange & American Economic Liberties Project for organizing!

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