John Carl Baker
nuclear weapons, foreign policy, the left - occasional antiquity and cocktail posts
Words: Nation, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, NK News, US Institute of Peace, New Republic, elsewhere
seniores tollunt omnia
- New START can’t be extended anyway - of course the talks are about a new agreement.
- The only thing here that matters: "In Mr. Trump’s second term, Ms. Britt has voted in line with the president 100 percent of the time." So tired of this reputation-laundering nonsense. I don't care what you think - I care what you do. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...
- Doesn't sound promising: "Middle Eastern officials involved in efforts to de-escalate the tensions had already downgraded their expectations for Friday’s meeting...some were resigned to what appeared to be an inevitable military confrontation." www.wsj.com/world/middle...
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- Wow this is unexpected good news - apparently in the last 24 hours, the US started talking with Russia about a potential "handshake agreement" re: expiration of New START. Sounds like it still needs approval from Putin and Trump, though. www.axios.com/2026/02/05/n...
- Reposted by John Carl Baker" The theory is not that abuse did not occur, but that the Constitution requires the state to tolerate it." newrepublic.com/article/2059...
- Reposted by John Carl Baker* US Companies Announce Most Job Cuts for Any January Since 2009 @bloomberg.com
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- Reposted by John Carl BakerNEW: Abigail Spanberger this afternoon ordered that all state agencies leave ICE's 287(g) program. This means that the state police (and some other agencies) will no longer be empowered to detain and arrest people for ICE. Big, big move by the governor within weeks of coming into office.
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- Arms Control Pope
- Worth reiterating that Trump *isn't even trying* to replace New START with another agreement. The Russian offer to stay under its limits for a year isn't perfect (no transparency measures), but Trump could respond with a counter-proposal or use the time to pursue negotiations. He's doing neither.
- Says a lot that no profession has been more critical of Golden Dome than physicists www.defenseone.com/ideas/2026/0...
- Reposted by John Carl BakerFor reference you could cover the entire operating loss of WaPo last year for approximately the cost of the Melania movie, which bezos funded
- "Not to mention, there is growing doubt the US can be relied upon as a responsible power amid the uncertainty generated by its unilateral attacks abroad and withdrawal from scores of international organisations." www.scmp.com/opinion/comm...
- Reposted by John Carl BakerMy working theory of Trumpism is that he is (among other things) the cutting edge of the bosses' campaign to reassert control over their white-collar workforce. The loss of control provided by the physical office during/after the pandemic would then. be part of what they're pushing back against.
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- Reposted by John Carl BakerAIPAC has already spent 2,000,000 USD on attack ads against pro-Israel candidate and former Congressman Tom Malinowski.
- "The administration is demanding concessions not only on uranium enrichment, but also on ballistic missiles and support for militias." Will be wild if the Trump regime blows up talks despite the Iranians reportedly being willing to bend on domestic enrichment www.wsj.com/world/middle...
- "Q: Were there any candidates who thought that Japan should possess nuclear weapons? A: A total of 24% of candidates standing for Sanseito answered that Japan "should possess nuclear weapons," as did 1% of candidates for the LDP and 2% for the JIP." mainichi.jp/english/arti...
- Reposted by John Carl Bakerthis is exactly right. "popularism" in practice amounts to an abdication of political leadership!
- This part of our response essay is where I'm at. Boiling down all of politics to electoralism has been absolutely terrible for resisting rising authoritarianism. www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
- Reposted by John Carl Bakerone thing the trump era has made clear, i think, is that the american people themselves are far more committed to the values of our founding documents than our elites
- What’s happening at the WaPo has nothing to do with profitability. When you are a billionaire, profitability is—for most of your pet projects—a secondary thought at best.
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- “The treaty was a huge net benefit for U.S. national security.” - @kingstonareif.bsky.social of RAND, quoted in this @demarest-colin.bsky.social newsletter about the end of New START www.axios.com/newsletters/...
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- Reposted by John Carl Baker"The other iron law of reactionary centrism...is that only the left and liberals really have agency. The right just reacts – everything is always backlash, never a self-generated political project." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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- “If the talks happen, they will mark a rare face-to-face encounter between U.S. and Iranian officials at a time when military threats by Mr. Trump, and the refusal of Iran’s leaders to accept his demands, have brought the two countries to the precipice of war” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/w...
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- Reposted by John Carl BakerDems still voting for Trump’s picks.
- Reposted by John Carl BakerOur field has spent decades debating whether extending the "nuclear umbrella" to allies is a reliable way of preventing proliferation but we failed to account for the possibility that the protector state might suddenly close the umbrella, call the ally a soyboy beta cuck, and threaten to annex them
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- The body camera thing makes no sense anyway, but it REALLY makes no sense if agents are allowed to stay masked.
- No one could have predicted, etc. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
- This is one of the more interesting localized struggles right now - at the intersection of data centers, rising electricity costs, and nuclear weapons www.michigandaily.com/news/news-br...
- The only "deal" the US is offering is capitulation - they want to Iranians to give up on all of their red lines just to *begin* talks www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...
- "The President will decide the path forward on nuclear arms control, which he will clarify on his own timeline" This means they're going to let New START die and they're not engaging with Putin about his offer to remain under existing limits. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
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- Reposted by John Carl Bakerit is wild. hitting the transphobia pipe is apparently just like huffing gasoline bsky.app/profile/bosh...
- My partner, who grew up in rural Maryland, has major beef with Tim McGraw’s “Down on the Farm.” Whenever it comes on, she is always like “you would never party in a barn - it’s disgusting.”
- Cocktail hot take: you should basically never use more than one strawberry in any single-serving “strawberry x” drink. The subtlety is important and you really lose complexity when you attempt to amp up the flavor.
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- One of the editors of Penguin’s The Thomas Paine Reader is former Labour leader Michael Foot.
- We don’t talk enough about how “invest” can also mean “besiege”
- “The entire administration of affairs was thus committed to him alone, without the consideration, that it was like throwing the hopes and interests of all the people on the hazard of a die, and placing that vast empire at the risk of the inclination and authority of a single ruler.”
