Life Updates

This blog has not been the site of much posting for many years -- but this year I have said even less than usual. These days, I am far more likely to post about global politics on BlueSky. I post short film reviews on Letterboxd and Book reviews on Goodreads. Fellow beer drinkers that I know in some way can also connect at Untappd where I have been checking in beers since 2013!

As readers may know, I am in the midst of a full-year sabbatical. I read and reviewed Ronald Kramer's Apocalyptic Crimes: Why Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal and Must Be Abolished. You can find that review here (that's a link to the journal Peace & Change). Soon I expect to post a link to an article that is "in press" on "Evaluating the Resilience of US and Canadian Climate Policy" for American Review of Canadian Studies. I submitted page proof corrections October 30 but the journal has not updated online articles since early October. My contribution was meant to be part of a special issue on Canada-U.S. Environmental Relations and focuses on the Electric Vehicle policies that Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau pursued a few years ago. 

What else?

In October, my wife and I took a short road trip to Indianapolis to see a film at the Heartland International Film Festival which was recently named a top 25 film festival in the world. I imagine we'll find our way back up there again in the future though we only managed to see one movie this year: Hello Out There! We intended to go another evening but the remaining tickets at the venues of interest were less than ideal (front row in small theaters). Next year we'll plan better. HIFF does not really have daytime screenings Monday-Friday. We saw Roofman at a mall while we awaited our film the next night. Coincidentally, both of these films featured actors from the TV series Ted Lasso. 

For unfortunate health reasons, a planned October-November sabbatical visit to the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in The Netherlands had to be postponed until 2026. I'm looking forward to it and my spouse is gradually recovering from an unexpected procedure. I'll post more about the project in the future. 

Meanwhile, I've been revising a conference paper on climate change politics from the Midwest Political Science conference from 2024 and working with Kurt Mills on version 2.0 of our 2020 article on America First and the Human Rights Regime. 

Now anyone who follows me on BlueSky probably has a better understanding of what I've been focusing on these past few months -- lots of climate change and Trump foreign policy -- and actions that seem to threaten American democratic norms and traditions. 


Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

No Kings

My spouse and I, a neighbor, and friends from different parts of town attended the No Kings rally in Louisville in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. Basically, peaceful protesters lined Frankfort Avenue for several blocks between 3 and 4 pm -- and numerous drivers tooted their car horns in support as they drove by. There were a few Trump supporters in vehicles that went by as well, but no one provoked violence on either side as far as I know. 

Based on the signs, people obviously had very different reasons for protesting. Many signs focused on Donald Trump's immigration policy, reflecting anti-ICE sentiment and support for due process for all. There were a lot of signs about the Epstein files. 

I didn't carry a sign but I'm quite disturbed by the masked immigration raids and deportations (again, without due process) of individuals to places like El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.  In Chicago recently, masked and heavily armed ICE agents allegedly broke down the doors in an apartment building while residents were sleeping and took everyone into the streets at gunpoint (including children). Dozens of citizens were zip-tied together, separated by race and ethnicity, and then interrogated. Eventually, people were bused away to determine if they were criminals. In the words of one resident, "They didn’t treat people like they were American.”

Local politicians have reacted with outrage:

“This raid wasn’t about public safety,” [Chicago] Mayor Brandon Johnson said several days later. “It was certainly not about immigration. This was about a show of authoritarianism, a forceful display of tyranny.”

I am even more concerned about the President's extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean (talk about lack of due process). This undermines the rule of law with the President effectively acting as judge, jury, and executioner. We don't even know if those killed have committed capital crimes. The President has labeled them as drug runners and thus narco-terrorists. The most recent attack has apparently killed an innocent fisherman. That's murder and the Department of Justice is not doing anything to address this. The Supreme Court may have made the President immune from crimes he commits as part of his official acts (as commander in chief, for example), but those firing the weapons are likely guilty of war crimes. The former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, is in the Hague awaiting his trial for "crimes against humanity" for similarly ordering summary executions of alleged drug criminals.  

Trump is also usurping congressional power of the purse, arguably the most potent power of Congress in the American system of checks and balances. He's ended programs that were authorized (funded) explicitly by Congress (such as solar energy grants) and has lately started spending revenues that Congress has not authorized (he did this in his first term with regards to the border wall). America's founding fathers wanted Congress to be the most important branch of government.  If congressional Republicans want to end these programs, they could do it legally in the budget. The House is accountable every 2 years in elections, with one-third of the Senate also vulnerable every 2 years. 

Trump's tariffs are also a blatant misuse of presidential power as the so-called Commerce Clause of the US constitution explicitly grants Congress the power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations." Congress did pass some laws during the Cold War granting the chief executive power to enact so-called "national security" tariffs (or embargoes), but Trump has been using tariffs to generate revenues, punish states for non-security policy reasons, and as leverage in various negotiations. That's all illegal. If the Republican Congress wants tariffs, pass a law implementing them.

I took some photos, including several of the inflatable costumed critters and one of the main corner of the protest at Bauer. There were more people surrounding the Walgreens across the street from me than there were on my side. 

    

There was a much larger and better-attended event in downtown Louisville Saturday -- it was scheduled for 3 hours and there were speakers (as there were at other events around the US). My group of friends opted for the neighborhood choice. 

President Trump responded to these protests with a despicable AI-generated video of himself wearing a crown and bombing protesters (see below). CNN reports that 7 million people attended over 2700 events across the US on Saturday. Every state had a rally and many were in smaller towns -- not just cities. Kentucky is a red state of course and there were plenty of rallies in other states Trump won. 

CNN notes police reports of zero arrests in either Portland or NYC. 

 

Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

Resistance Strategy When the Government is Itching for Violence

Last week, President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth spoke to a group of U.S. generals and admirals they had assembled from deployments all over the world. Trump gave a rambling speech, but the most troubling part repeated something he said during his 2024 campaign. The U.S. military should be in the business of fighting what he called the "enemy from within" because it is a bigger threat to America. He noted that this threat was going to be a "big thing" for those assembled. He had recently signed "an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances."

Essentially none of the brass in the audience built their careers on fighting that alleged enemy from within -- especially considering that Trump seems to be talking about his domestic political opponents though he often conflated them with ordinary criminals (who rape, shoot or beat up people). He mentioned ambiguous threats from "insurrectionists" and said they were "paid by the radical left." Read the speech, it is not very clear.

In any event, it must be weird for career military official who have fought the Taliban, ISIS, or Iraqi insurgents to hear a president claim that domestic threats are worse these days. They have homes in the U.S. They can see that America is not like war-torn Iraq or Afghanistan. Why should they believe that these domestic threats are more worrisome than North Korean or Iranian nuclear weapons, or the rise of China as a great power? It's crazy talk, frankly.

Just to be clear, various sources of crime data find that violent and property crime is lower than it has been in decades. There was a 2020-21 blip from the pandemic, but that's it. 

I know a lot of international relations scholars that worry that threats are often inflated via fearmongering, but even they would be unlikely to accept Trump's ridiculous claims comparing foreign to domestic threats.

It was not just this speech that brought the issue forward, obviously. On September 25 Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum-7  which emphasized a (selective) handful of recent cases of political violence that led to a few deaths. He labels this domestic terrorism and basically blames "the left." He includes a set of anecdotes -- just like he has done when noting a few misleading cases over the last decade when discussing alleged immigrant crime. Yes, immigrants occasionally commit violent crimes, but the data have long shown that they do this less frequently than US citizens. 

Anyway, this is from that NSPM-7:

This political violence is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge organically.  Instead, it is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.  A new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them — is required. 

There is no data to support these claims. A recent think tank study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies report noted a recent uptick in left-wing political violence, but there were only a small number of total deaths this century and their data revealed that the right had been responsible for far more political violence for several previous decades. The death tally for the last decade was 112 killed by the right, 13 by the left. See Figure 3 and Table 1 if you click that link. That's 125 people total, or around a dozen per year.

As I used to note on this blog, terrorism is a rare event and domestic terror is even rarer. More people die from peanut allergies, bathroom falls, dog bites, etc. The FBI and other organizations have catalogued domestic terror incidents for many years and the CSIS finding is not unique -- political violence has been far more common from the right than from the left. It's certainly not been a serious enough problem to justify reorientation of the military to fight an "enemy from within." That last linked article notes that the Trump administration removed a recent government report with conclusions that contradict Trump's baseless claims. 

It seems like Trump, Stephen Miller, and perhaps Pete Hegseth are itching for combat in American cities. Trump himself has been telling outrageous lies about Portland burning in order to justify sending in the National Guard and/or U.S. military (as a "training ground" as he said in the speech last week). This is from his speech to the military leaders:

Portland, Oregon, where it looks like a war zone. And I get a call from the liberal governor, sir, please don't come in, we don't need you. I said, well, unless they're playing false tapes, this looked like World War II. Your place is burning down. 

I visited Portland for nearly a week in mid-August and the city is not burning. It has problems with traffic and unhoused people, but there are no riots -- or even large protests like there were in summer 2020 (possibly the source of Trump's claims about Portland). I saw a handful of protesters outside a Tesla dealership. Look on social media and residents have been posting all kinds of photos demonstrating the normalcy of Portland life. 

There was a huge insurrection during the final days of Trump's presidency, but he praised that January 6 action and then pardoned all the convicted criminals this year -- even if they had committed violent acts against police officers. Such hypocrisy!

My fear is that Trump et al are sending troops and National Guard members to blue cities like Portland and Chicago (after LA and DC) in hopes of provoking the kinds of civil unrest witnessed in 2020 -- sufficient to allow them to invoke the Insurrection Act and occupy those cities. Those are Trump's words, not mine.

One obvious provocation involves ICE activities in blue cities and states. It is easy to find video footage of masked ICE agents using violence to break down doors, crash through windows, push people around. There do not seem to be many arrest warrants and the media reports plenty of cases when citizens are rounded up with other immigrants. Most immigrants now in ICE detention have never been convicted of a crime. 

Most of the worst stuff from ICE seems to be happening in blue cities and states. In my blue city in a red state, Louisville, the mayor agreed to a 48 hour hold on inmate immigrants. In other words, if an immigrant is arrested, then the city allows the federal government 48 hours to make a decision about deportation. Louisville is thus not a sanctuary city. But, apparently as a result of this agreement, there have been almost no raids and arrests have not ticked up as they have in other cities and states. Anecdotally, I often see Latinos in construction and lawn care, seeming to work without concerns about ICE agents. 

Trump voters in Kentucky (and other red states) might ignore or dismiss the news about heavy-handed ICE practices because they don't see anything like that happening in their cities and states. We residents of red states do know what that looks like. In summer 2020, BLM and Breonna Taylor protests in Louisville definitely triggered authoritarian responses from the police and people could see the streets brimming with protesters and police with occasional violence and some vandalism. 

Should red state activists increase protests in calmer areas? I'm not calling for violence -- quite the contrary -- but perhaps some sizeable ICE protests in red states would reveal more clearly that the administration is implementing a political strategy and not a public policy. How would the administration address large protests in Louisville, Memphis, Birmingham, New Orleans, Dallas, etc.? 

At the same time, I think activists in blue cities and states should be very clear that they are committed to non-violence. Especially if a regime is itching for violence, opposition violence is ineffective and counterproductive, as well as dangerous. The inspiration provided by Gandhi and MLK should guide contemporary protesters. Gene Sharp assembled a huge array of non-violent political tactics. Have a look at his toolkit. 

More importantly, scholarly research by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan demonstrates that non-violent movements are far more likely to achieve their policy goals. They wrote a terrific book that I highly recommend, but you can look at this academic article if you want to read something shorter. 

I continue to worry about Trump's fascist instincts and he has been pushing the envelope throughout the year usurping legislative power (cutting spending authorized by Congress, declaring armed conflict on drug cartels, etc.). As Dan Nexon writes, the opposition needs to be planning -- and acting 

Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

Michigan Travel and Beer Update

White Flame Brewing, Hudsonville

This post is another update to my series of entries about Michigan beer. Basically, I'm listing places we visited on vacation this July and August (2025) along with prior visits to Michigan brewpubs. This is one instance where Google Timeline information is helpful. 

The vacation was fun, though imperfect. It was really hot in the south in late July -- we went to a movie in a shopping mall on a Sunday afternoon to beat the heat. We saw Eddington, which I will mention in my December movie entry -- but you can read about it now on my letterboxd page. Later during the trip, once we went upstate to Traverse City, the entire area got hit by wildfire smoke from Canada. It was disappointing and limited our outdoor activites somewhat.  

In any case, regarding the brewery listings, I'm not including stops where I didn't have at least one drink -- sometimes we decide a place is not for us, or I merely shop for beer. On the way home this summer I  bought some beer at Brewery Vivant in Grand Rapids. 

Given that Michigan has over 400 breweries, my personal list includes only about 6% of the total! I could move to Michigan and have a difficult time sampling all of them. 

2025 (1 new; 25 total) (new ones in bold)

Big Lake Brewing, Holland

White Flame Brewing, Hudsonville

Loco Boys Brewing, Traverse City

Jolly Pumpkin Brewing, Traverse City

Rare Bird Brewpub, Traverse City

Founders Brewing, Grand Rapids

We dined at all these spots and had the best meals in Traverse City establishments and at Founders. I doubt we would return to White Flame. 

Most of the other dining spots we hit were also beer friendly: Hops at 84 East in Holland, Hopcat Holland, 7 Monks TC, etc. 

2024 (5 new; 24 total) 

Latitude 42°, Kalamazoo (April trip)

Big Lake Brewing, Holland

Brass Ring Brewing, Grand Rapids

Two Guys Brewing, Grand Rapids

Short's Brewing, Elk Rapids location

Filling Station Brewing, Traverse  City

Workshop Brewing, Traverse City

Infinity Brewing, Traverse City (September)

Jolly Pumpkin Brewing, Traverse City (September)

Loco Boys Brewing, Traverse City (September)

We dined at all of these except Short's, where I mainly wanted to try the new Payne Pils. Latitude 42 and Brass Ring had the best food though we liked our meals at Big Lake and Workshop. The wait and service at Filling Station had us questioning our choice.

Incidentally, we've now also visited beer friendly HopCat locations in Grand Rapids (2 different locations), Ann Arbor, Detroit, Holland, Kalamazoo, and Louisville (sadly now closed permanently). 

October Update: The food was OK to good at both Infinity and Jolly Pumpkin, but Loco Boys was closer to very good/exceptional. They serve Mexican food! 

2023 (1 new; 19 total)

Griffin Claw, Rochester Hills near Detroit

Brewery Vivant, Grand Rapids

Founders, Grand Rapids

Brewery Vivant may have the best brewpub food we've found in Michigan. 

2022 (4 new; 18 total)

Odd Side Ales, Grand Haven

Unruly Brewing, Muskegon

Rare Bird Brewing, Traverse City

Cherry Republic Brewing Company & Public House, Glen Arbor

Founders, Grand Rapids

We dined at all of those places, though at Odd Side we had to order takeout from a nearby restaurant. They don't have food. 

2021 (2 new; 14 total)

Big Lake Brewing, Holland

Guardian Brewing, Saugatuck (closed/moved to Indiana)

Brewery Vivant, Grand Rapids

We also dined at all of these.

2019 (2 new; 12 total)

New Holland Brewing, Holland

Big Lake Brewing, Holland

Clam Lake Beer Company, Cadillac (2)

Filling Station, Traverse City

Workshop Brewing, Traverse City

MiddleCoast Brewing, Traverse City (was called Monkey Fist at the time)

We did not dine at Big Lake or MiddleCoast, but both have food (I think).

2018 (2 new; 10 total)

Workshop Brewing, Traverse City

Clam Lake Beer Company, Cadillac

Filling Station, Traverse City

We dined at these.

2017

I was on antibiotics that trip and did not visit any brewpubs and avoided alcohol. 

2016 (2 new; 8 total)

Saugatuck Brewing, Saugatuck

Filling Station, Traverse City

2015 (2 new ones, 6 total)

Short's Brewing, Bellaire

Rare Bird, Traverse City

We dined at these.

Older trips: (at least 4 visited, from memory)

New Holland Brewing, Holland

Mackinaw Brewing, Traverse City

North Peak, Traverse City

Jolly Pumpkin, Traverse City

We did not dine at Jolly Pumpkin, but they have food -- and various other locations across the state.

Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

Wildfire Season

There's a long introduction explaining the origins of the song...by singer Jobi Riccio. 

 

Of course one problem is that Wildfire Season is now 365 days in some places.

Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

Baseball Stadium additions

Globe Life Field, Texas versus Seattle Friday July 

I've seen professional baseball in dozens of ballparks -- many of them no longer open or even standing. My Dad and Mom took me to my first major league game in the early 1970s (I have not made an effort to pinpoint the game and my ticket stub collection is incomplete). It was in the old Municipal Stadium in KC so the game was probably in 1971 or 1972. Growing up in Kansas, this helped cement my lifelong fandom of the Kansas City Royals. In my youth, the team was terrific and George Brett was a huge star and eventual Hall of Famer. I attended his induction ceremony in Cooperstown. During college at Kansas, I occasionally made it to the park then known as Royals Stadium (now Kauffman, after the original owner). 

From 1984-1987 I lived within easy driving distance of old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore and attended many games while in graduate school in College Park. With friends, I also road-tripped to Philly, Boston, and New York -- seeing the Mets at Shea. I attended Yankee Stadium during the Cooperstown weekend. Two buddies from grad school also went with me to spring training 1987 and we saw 8 baseball games in 7 days, but these were all exhibitions in minor league parks or training facilities. 

While a doctoral fellow at Stanford I attended several A's games in the Colliseum and one Giants game in Candlestick. The next 3 years I lived in Chicago and went to numerous White Sox games at old Comiskey and a few Cubs games at Wrigley. I lived walking distance to the latter, but was an AL fan. From Chicago I road tripped to Milwaukee a couple of times to see the Brewers. 

On my honeymoon, my wife and I attended a Mariners game in the Kingdome. Before you say that is not very romantic, keep in mind that this was during the second week of that trip. On our 10th wedding anniversary, we went to Montreal for an Expos game at the Big O. 

Since moving to Louisville in 1991, I've seen the Reds in Cincy a number of times (2 different parks!) and have trekked to St. Louis to see the Cardinals (2 parks).  During trips to visit friends and family, I've seen the Nationals in DC (2 parks). On vacations over the years, I've managed to attend games in Detroit (2 parks), Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland (2 parks). On conference travel, I saw the Braves in Atlanta. Travel has also taken me back to Seattle and Chicago so I've seen new parks in those cities too. 

Earlier this month, I attended the SABR National Convention and added Texas's Globe Life Field to my list of parks (pictured above). Despite living in Waco for an academic year, and having a sister in Houston for many years, I never attended a Texas (or Houston) home game before.  In any case, the conference was fun and I had a chance to catch up with some old friends both at the conference and in the DFW area. My favorite panels involved a mix of former players, baseball journalists, and a former union lawyer-executive (Don Fehr). The players on these panels included Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins, former Expos pitcher Steve Rogers, and old knuckleballer Dodger-Ranger Charlie Hough. 

Adding Texas means that I've now seen 20 major league franchises in their home parks in 21 cities (Expos became Nationals). In August, I plan to make my first visit to Dodger Stadium to see LA versus San Diego. 

I'm not even going to attempt to list all the minor league parks I've visited over the years, but I've often blogged about those experiences. This summer I added Rochester where I attended a game on Memorial Day.  I've often organized minor league trips to see specific top-rated prospects who became future stars --  Bobby Witt was in Omaha when that team played Columbus in Ohio, I saw Vlad Guerrero Jr. (and Bo Bichette) in A ball in Lansing, Michigan, and Pete Crow-Armstrong in South Bend. The visiting team in Rochester this summer, Guardians affiliate the Columbus Clippers, featured Chase DeLauter. He homered. Remember that name even if he's not guaranteed to be a future all-star. 


Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

Blue Mountain Film Festival 2025

From May 29 to June 1, my spouse and I attended the Blue Mountain Film Festival near Collingwood, Ontario. We went in 2024 as well. If you are interested, this link navigates to a list of all of the films. 

I post film reviews to Letterboxd, but not everyone is on that platform. Here are my brief (slighted edited) reviews of the four films we saw:

Thursday: Holy Cow (2024) (French)

This is a story about a young man known for his drinking and fighting who is forced to grow up when misfortune strikes his family. He begins a romance and learns an artisanal craft. It's worth a watch.

Friday: Aontas (2025) (Irish)

It's a crime thriller that provides commentary about the importance of community, especially given the contemporary political economy. The story is told almost exclusively backwards, beginning with a scene from nearly the end of the movie and working back bit by bit. It manages to provide plenty of suspense despite this method.

Saturday: Eephus (2024) (US)

I've seen a *lot* of baseball movies and this fun flick is in the upper third (approximately). There are some nods to prior films even as this movie focuses on a seemingly meaningless adult game featuring Dads, very pudgy catchers, old outfielders, and others with modest talent. They love the game and want to finish their late October matchup even though the sunshine disappears, the umpires leave (but baseball has no clock!), and the supply of balls runs short. Bill "Spaceman" Lee has a cameo inning pitching in the game. The conceit is that the field is being destroyed to make way for construction of a new school.

Sunday: Souleymane's Story (2024) (French)

This is an exceptional film. The novice lead is terrific playing a version of himself -- a recent immigrant from Guinea seeking asylum. His hard life in Paris reflected on the screen is sometimes tough to watch and it reminds the viewer of the horror of the nationalist anti-immigrant fervor infecting the US and other nations in the current political moment.

Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

A different kind of car song

There are lots of songs about cars and driving, but most of them are not political. Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts have produced a cut called "Lets Roll Again" that is unlike other car songs. This is the Official Music Video. Enjoy!

 

It sounds a bit like "This Land is Your Land." 

Trump Digs Coal

Donald Trump campaigned as a coal-friendly presidential candidate and his administration is trying to make good on his promises. From Politico two days ago: 

Trump signed four executive orders designed to eliminate what he sees as obstacles to ramping up coal energy production in the United States, including by opening up public lands for coal leasing. He is also pushing for the fuel to be used to power the artificial intelligence data centers that are expected to be a major contributor to skyrocketing electricity demand in the coming years.

One order would also instruct Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who chairs the president’s Energy Dominance Council, to designate coal as a “mineral,” which would help boost production under Trump’s previous executive order aimed at rapidly approving permits for domestic mineral production. It also directs Interior and other relevant agencies to lift barriers from mining the resource to boost production, according to a fact sheet.

I teach a course on the politics of climate change and all of my students can tell you that this is a very bad idea. Coal is by far the worst of the fossil fuels that cause climate change as it burns much less efficiently than natural gas and oil. As the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) keeps saying, climate change poses a " grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet." The IPCC has essentially issued a "code red for humanity." 

Beyond its carbon intensity, coal is also "dirty" in the classic sense as it emits sulfur oxides and particulate pollution that is very bad for lungs. This estimate from a recent study by a team of scholars from George Mason University, the Harvard School of Public Health, and University of Texas at Austin is on the NIH website, but given the political climate could be vulnerable to a scrub:

The team estimated that between 1999 and 2020, 460,000 deaths would not have occurred in the absence of emission from the coal power plants.

That's merely in the US. Another study from University College London and Harvard found that "more than 8 million people around the globe die each year as a result of breathing in air containing particles from burning fuels like coal, petrol and diesel." 

Coal is also bad for miners and DOGE has set about killing programs and firing people that work on black lung and mine safety. Trump is also famously anti-union and anti-worker. 

In any case, the only way coal can compete in many markets is via subsidy as inexpensive natural gas has long been replacing coal in electricity generation. There was even a big drop in coal's share while Trump was president 2017-2020, but that just continued a long-term trend:

My students can also tell you that both solar and wind power are both now cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels around the world. This chart is from Popular Science:

Trump obviously digs coal, but his policies seem to be designed to make Mister Peabody wealthier, damn the consequences for the coal miner's daughter, her family, and all the rest of us. 

As the Weaver's asked decades ago, which side are you on? 

Visit this blog's homepage.


For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

2025 Oscars

As I do annually, this post reviews Academy Award nominees in major categories and provides my rankings within them. I am not predicting winners and only rank the films I have seen. This year, I have not seen very many of the movies, so much more than normal I will be updating this post and noting the edits with yellow highlights. 

You can find my post about last year's Oscars here and work backward if you want. 

Best Picture

Conclave 
A Complete Unknown  

Anora  

Emilia Pérez  

Dune: Part Two  

The Substance 

I really liked Conclave even though I was not really expecting much. It features great acting performances and an intriguing storyline. 

A Complete Unknown is an interesting and generally well-done biopic focusing on just a few years of Bob Dylan's life -- his period as a NY folk musician. There are a lot of great songs. 

Anora is an interesting character study, but it felt like I was watching a preventable catastrophe. Emilia Pérez is a unique film. Did we need it? 

Dune 2 has a complicated storyline and the acting is fine, but it is overly long and more of a technical achievement than anything else. Green Borders was a better film last year and I'm sure there were many other more deserving candidates for an Oscar nomination. 

There were many non-Oscar nominated movies that I liked much better than The Substance. Indeed, in the same genre, I thought A Different Man was better. 

The Brutalist  

I’m Still Here  

Nickel Boys 

Wicked  

Directing

James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

Sean Baker, Anora

Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez

Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

I need to see more of the top films.   I never entirely know how to evaluate this category. 

Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

Actor in a Leading Role

Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown

Fiennes does a great job, though it is probably not the best performance of his career. That Nazi he played for Spielberg is difficult to shake all these years later. 

I saw Chalamet in Dune 2 and Stan in A Different Man so I have a feel for their work. Both are quite talented but this year I'd go for Fiennes among the 3 of them. Update: Chalamet was great in A Complete Unknown. And Stan was excellent in The Apprentice. It's a tossup. 

 

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Colman Domingo, Sing Sing

Actress in a Leading Role

Mikey Madison, Anora

Demi Moore, The Substance

Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez

Madison committed to her role in Anora. She was very good, but it's an odd film. 

Moore's performance was perhaps the best aspect of The Substance, but that was not enough to save the film for me. Gascón's performance was fine, but I'm not sure it was Oscar-nomination material even if she was the title character. 

Cynthia Erivo, Wicked

Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Actor in a Supporting Role

Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown

Yura Borisov, Anora

I watched A Real Pain instead of the Oscars. It was a very good performance, but grating. Norton was also excellent and could have won. Borisov was understated and also excellent. 

In my view, Strong was robbed of the award, though he probably should have been nominated for Best Actor. He had a lot of screen time. 

Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

Actress in a Supporting Role

Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown

Isabella Rossellini, Conclave

Saldaña gives an excellent performance and I can see how she won. She even sings and dances, of course. 

Barbaro was good, but Elle Fanning might have been better. Her face said everything when she watched Dylan and Baez singing duets. 

I don't believe Rossellini will win as this is a surprisingly small part. She is more seen than heard, perhaps predictably in a film about the selection of a new Pope. 

Ariana Grande, Wicked

Felicity Jones, The Brutalist

Animated Feature Film

Flow

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The Wild Robot 

This is unusual. In many years I don't see any of the animated features prior to the Oscars -- and may never see them. This year, I caught one because my wife wanted to see it (she usually has almost no interest in animation) and another because I teach climate change. A third was on a streaming service I'm accessing right now.

I really enjoyed Flow though I freely admit that the dog was my favorite character in a film mostly about the journey of a cat. The flooding and lack of people (and dialogue) makes this seem like a tale about climate change from the point of view of the natural world. 

W&G was fine, but not spectacular. The Wild Robot was too much of a kid movie for my tastes. 

Inside Out 2 

Memoir of a Snail 

Documentary Feature Film

Black Box Diaries 

No Other Land 

Porcelain War

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat 

Sugarcane 

International Feature Film

Flow 

Emilia Pérez 

Flow was a very good film, but I suspect there are stronger contenders for the award. It's amazing to me that Green Borders is not on this list -- apparently a decision marred by government pressure. 

Maybe Emilia Pérez is a better movie, but I liked Flow -- but split Emilia Pérez into 2 nights because I really don't like musicals very much. 

I’m Still Here 

The Girl With the Needle

The Seed of the Sacred Fig 

Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.

Best Films of 2024

The graphic below identifies the top 25 films from 2024 that critics ranked on their end-of-year "best of" lists. The full list goes to 100 and if you are interested in seeing it, I'm sourcing the list from the same website as I used last year. The methodology for compilation is ostensibly the same. Here's the detail from last year:

Films are sorted by the percentage of lists they are included on.* This is typically the same as sorting by number of lists included, but can vary when films make lists across multiple years.  For example, if one film makes 10 lists in a year with 100 lists available, it’s ranking will be higher than a film that makes 15 lists when 200 lists are available.  The times a film appears at the top of a list is used as a tie-breaker.

*punctuation errors corrected 

Basically, this is an annual best films comment that I'm posting for 2024. This is the post about the best films of 2023. Below this graphic, you'll find my rankings of these films (by tiers) with a list of the ones I still need to see. As I watch them over time, I'll edit the post but note the changes with yellow highlighting.  

This "best of" comment is distinct from both the annual post on "films of 2024," which is my end-of-year musing about all the films I saw in a calendar year, and my annual Oscar post, which concerns that year's Academy Award nominees. 

Top-tier films. These are very serious Oscar contenders:

TBD.

Conclave

Anora

I did not have particularly high expectations, but Conclave is excellent film-making. A thriller about selecting a new Pope!

Anora was very well made, but I didn't think it was an all-time great or anything. 

Second-tier films. These are very good and could garner Oscar support:

A Different Man

A Real Pain

Challengers

Dune: Part Two

Janet Planet

Juror #2

Civil War

Third-tier films. These are entertaining but flawed films:

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Love Lies Bleeding

The Wild Robot

I Saw the TV Glow

The Substance

Fourth-tier films. I found these to be disappointing and do not recommend (if necessary, could remain blank):

TBD

Films yet to see (20 of 25 as of today):

The Brutalist

Nickel Boys

All We Imagine as Light

Wicked Part One

Sing Sing

Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World

Hard Truths

The Beast

Nosferatu

Evil Does Not Exist

No Other Land

Glancing through the rest of the top 100, I've seen the following films already and rank them roughly in this order:

Best of the rest

Green Border (#45) (I'd put this in the first tier above)

A Complete Unknown (#27)

Between the Temples (42)

Thelma (61) 

September 5 (40)

Rebel Ridge (50)

Kneecap (60)

I liked most of these films more than all of the third-tier above. 

These were all about the same

Saturday Night (73)

Twisters (86)

Will & Harper (96)

Emilia Pérez  (33)

Problemista (82)

Hit Man (31)

Flow (30)

Less enjoyable

Trap (44)

Nearly all of these films would be in my second or third tier above. 

Visit this blog's homepage.

For 280 character IR and foreign policy talk, follow me on Bluesky.