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richard.wickedproblems.earth
Richard Delevan
@richard.wickedproblems.earth
3.4K followers 3.2K following 12K posts
wickedproblems.earth
Shar pei with opposable thumbs. Climate tech in the streets, crime fiction in the sheets. Around since 327 ppm. Writer, podcaster, strategist. GreenSky, EnergySky. MAGA delenda est.
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richard.wickedproblems.earth
Someone saw this and messaged me: "if a shar pei had opposable thumbs this is what you'd get".
January 13, 2026 at 3:59 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
The hat is getting mixed reactions on calls.
A MAGA hat but instead it says “MAKE AMERICA GO AWAY” Greenland flag on side of hat
January 13, 2026 at 10:20 AM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Listen to @bloodwork.show
January 10, 2026 at 6:30 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
If only it was still a novelty hat.
January 10, 2026 at 2:43 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Leo I think sees himself as part of a whole team and can't say everything all the time, even as true as what you've recounted. Not that JD et al are daily communicants but if they did slide into a pew today they'd hear exactly that:
First reading 1 John 4:19-5:4 ‘Whoever loves God must also love his brother.’ Beloved: We love because God first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
January 10, 2026 at 1:40 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Coincidentally I just got the 2012 translation of Augustine's City of God to write reactions along with reading it, because it seems so disturbingly relevant right now. I'm not sure if I feel better or worse for knowing it's been doing the rounds in the Vatican this week for the same reasons. /fin
Two volumes of Saint Augustine's City of God, resting on my kitchen table next to coffee.
January 10, 2026 at 12:48 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Leo (and his staff) are old enough to remember the Cold War, and the 'arms race' that sounds antiquated to many ears. But the penny dropped for me when he connected the end of the START treaty to AI. Hard not to see extreme pro-AI rhetoric as zombie "missile gap" arms race stuff.
At the heart of many of the situations I have mentioned, we can see something that Augustine himself pointed out, namely the persistent idea that peace is only possible through the use of force and deterrence. While war is content with destruction, peace requires continuous and patient efforts of construction as well as constant vigilance. Such efforts are required of everyone, starting with the countries that possess nuclear arsenals. I think in particular of the important need to follow-up on the New START Treaty, which expires in February. Indeed, there is a danger of returning to the race of producing ever more sophisticated new weapons, also by means of artificial intelligence. The latter is a tool that requires appropriate and ethical management, together with regulatory frameworks focused on the protection of freedom and human responsibility.
January 10, 2026 at 12:48 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
"the Holy See consistently takes a stand in defense of the inalienable dignity of every person. It cannot be overlooked, for example, that every migrant is a person and, as such, has inalienable rights that must be respected in every situation. Not all migrants move by choice..."
In its international relations and actions, the Holy See consistently takes a stand in defense of the inalienable dignity of every person. It cannot be overlooked, for example, that every migrant is a person and, as such, has inalienable rights that must be respected in every situation. Not all migrants move by choice, but many are forced to flee because of violence, persecution, conflict and even the effects of climate change, as in various parts of Africa and Asia. In this year, which also marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the International Organization for Migration, I renew the Holy See’s hope that the actions taken by States against criminality and human trafficking will not become a pretext for undermining the dignity of migrants and refugees.
January 10, 2026 at 12:48 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
For everybody who went all "yeah civil war bring it on bitches" this wk, one thing to know about Reneé Good - 20 yr ago she spent time in Northern Ireland as a teen working with Christian youth groups. Because she wanted to help a post-violent-conflict society learning to live with neighbours again.
For Hainsworth, who travelled with her to Northern Ireland in 2005 and 2006, she was "like an older sister to me". "When I was getting homesick, she'd sing to me. She had a voice of an angel. She'd bring me cups of tea. "She had a nurturing, beautiful soul." The pair spent time in counties Antrim and Down, in the summer outreach teams at Ballysally Presbyterian Church and First Saintfield Presbyterian Church. There they were involved in working in child and youth outreach programmes and summer Bible study groups. Hainsworth remembers it as "wholesome and beautiful work". When she heard the news of Good's death, she said what started as shock quickly turned into an ache. "To think of her children, family and partner who had to witness this, it's just soul-crushing'. Rev James Hyndman, who was the minister at First Saintfield during Good's internship, described her death as "an absolute tragedy". "Renee Ganger, as she was then, was gentle-natured and warm. A loving type of person," he said, adding that she chose to stay in Northern Ireland for a while after her internship ended. "She was a lovely, lovely girl." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g49wzw58yo
January 9, 2026 at 12:36 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Please tell me I'm missing something and that the equity line also goes down not just local sales?
January 8, 2026 at 1:46 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
I mean, block away, sure. For a minute I was worried I was annoying people to be blocked. Then I looked and saw some of the accounts, eg, and thinking, how on earth would I have wound up in this dude's feed to need blocking?
January 8, 2026 at 11:53 AM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Not sure if a neo-de Valeran "Long Emergency" or Ghoshian "Great Derangement" will be lumped together in future historiography or if there will be more granular periodicity.
Image from Waterford Whispers News: Work begins on changing WWII 'Éire' signs to read 'Not Greenland'
January 7, 2026 at 12:44 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Boudicca's trumpet sounds once more after being accidentally dug up at an Iron Age site in Norfolk about to be razed for new housing.

I'm sure it's fine and no one should think we're in some time of weird signs and portents.
January 7, 2026 at 10:15 AM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Indeed, expecting fund managers to have some inner Kay Graham has been a bit fanciful for a while now
Table of major owners of shares in NY Times https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NYT/holders/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADMCIS7iQMhYM7aydyBcIaQscRlaK-CqySVxocvn0Sp9emGhjyNyLjVJYZzc8iAavtvSj2fW-E8X4YZ2XOeXTUZRs91bHpLoy_vBzDTVWYqkb7PMoFY3piynTc6hEfG15p9Jbw1S-huoQTeFXDD2FoApRQalPlQ8bUK5fsoxK77H
January 6, 2026 at 7:14 AM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
ca 1982.

If I'd saved all the quarters at 7-Eleven on this puppy I could buy it now for cash.
January 5, 2026 at 10:04 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
One last one - going ALL the way back to 400 CE, with Augustine's City of God, and its influence on Laudato Si, eg, cited in this commentary: churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/aug...
On this scale of utility we would put some inanimate things above some creatures of sense—so much so that if we had the power, we should be ready to remove these creatures from the world of nature, whether in ignorance of the place they occupy in it, or, though knowing that, still subordinating them to our own convenience. For instance, would not anyone prefer to have food in their house, rather than mice, or money rather than fleas? (City of God, 11.6). Of course—and he is not imagining we would think otherwise—he is saying that if one accepts this logic absolutely, not only would one be willing to eradicate mice and fleas from the natural world completely if we could, but also, that there are human consequences to this logic. It is not surprising that in this logic, he says, “we find the same criterion operating in the value we place on human beings, for all the undoubted worth of a human creature. A higher price is often paid for a horse than for a slave, for a jewel than for a maidservant” (ibid.). This is the ... interconnection between environmental and social pathologies we have seen emphasized in LS. Pride is, in Aug terms, the primacy of the hierarchy of utility in one’s heart, such that on the one hand we would be ready to eradicate creatures we find inconvenient from the world of nature, and, on the other, we would be ready to create a hierarchy among the value of human beings such that all can potentially be treated as commodities, and many actually are. The most extreme social manifestation of pride is slavery. In another mood, Augustine will describe pride as the preference for power over justice. Justice would dictate... that we treat a human being with the objective dignity attaching to him or to her, and not as though they were no more than a stone, to be bought and sold. What we are really preferring in this equation, then, is not only our own convenience or utility, but our own power to determine what is valuable and what is not.
January 4, 2026 at 7:44 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Happy to. Laudato Si was my re-entry point to re-engage seriously with the material. The language of rights is all over it - but this language more or less was echoed in the ICJ opinion from last summer. Search "right" in the LS link - www.vatican.va/content/fran...
Even as the quality of available water is constantly diminishing, in some places there is a growing tendency, despite its scarcity, to privatize this resource, turning it into a commodity subject to the laws of the market. Yet access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal 9 human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity. This debt can be paid partly by an increase in funding to provide clean water and sanitary services among the poor. But water continues to be wasted, not only in the developed world but also in developing countries which possess it in abundance. This shows that the problem of water is partly an educational and cultural issue, since there is little awareness of the seriousness of such behaviour within a context of great inequality.
January 4, 2026 at 7:22 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
This saved me the trouble of making these points. Also, Pope Leo’s statement today seems to reflect Ben’s analysis, reading between the lines.

“The Venezuelan People”, human rights, “sovereignty”, priority on the poor. All will be read by MAGA Catholics as subtweeting. Which it definitely is.
It is with deep concern that I am following the developments in Venezuela. The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration. his must lead to the overcoming of violence, and to the pursuit of paths of justice and peace, guaranteeing the sovereignty of the country, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in its Constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each and every person, and working together to build a peaceful future of cooperation, stability and harmony, with special attention to the poorest who are suffering because of the difficult economic situation. I pray for all this, and I invite you to pray too, entrusting our prayer to the intercession of Our Lady of Coromoto, and to Saints José Gregorio Hernández and Carmen Rendiles.
January 4, 2026 at 1:25 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Venezuela and Greenland are proof that misuse of statistics and shortcuts in cartography can be deadly in a world run by morons.
Table of “proven reserves of oil” w Venezuela at the top. Table of Total Energy Supply. With China at the top, per the IEA Greenland looks big on a Mercator projection map, which distorts sizes to create constant lines of bearing for navigation on a globe. It looks as big as Africa. In reality it’s about the size of Algeria.
January 4, 2026 at 10:29 AM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Doing the rounds even in non political Insta
Cycle chart: - US kidnaps Maduro - Maduro in the US illegally - ICE kidnaps Maduro and sends to Venezuela - Maduro in Venezuela - Repeat
January 4, 2026 at 10:11 AM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Oh it’s so bad. That said, based on a @kschake.bsky.social tip I got and hugely enjoyed Ghost Fleet. The cameo from the worlds best hacker collective was a bit of Deus ex machina but it was great fun.
Ghost Fleet https://amzn.eu/d/4ZbobG3
January 3, 2026 at 5:47 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Meanwhile
Bloomberg: “Bet against Christ’s return pays 5.5% annual gain on Polymarket”
January 3, 2026 at 12:37 PM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
Today is the precise 36th anniversary of the last time the United States used force to remove a Latin American head of state, in case you’re keeping score.
Bush Orders Invasion of Panama 1989 President George H.W. Bush orders the invasion of Panama on Dec. 20, 1989. He notifies congressional leaders several hours prior, but does not invoke the War Powers Act. He cites as goals: to topple leader Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, to protect Americans, to restore democracy and to protect the Panama Canal. The United States installs a government of leaders whose election earlier in the year had been nullified by Noriega. The misson ends Jan. 3, 1990, with Noriega’s surrender and extradition to Miami for trial on U.S. drug-trafficking charges.
January 3, 2026 at 9:56 AM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
And those dastardly (checks notes) all previous Popes and Pastoral Constitution that Leo cites in Dilexi Te.
86. The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, building on the teachings of the Church Fathers, forcefully reaffirms the universal destination of earthly goods and the social function of property that derives from it. The Constitution states that “God destined the earth and all it contains for all people and nations so that all created things would be shared fairly by all humankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity… In their use of things people should regard the external goods they lawfully possess as not just their own but common to others as well, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as themselves. Therefore, everyone has the right to possess a sufficient amount of the earth’s goods for themselves and their family… Persons in extreme necessity are entitled to take what they need from the riches of others… By its nature, private property has a social dimension that is based on the law of the common destination of earthly goods. Whenever the social aspect is forgotten, ownership can often become the object of greed and a source of serious disorder.” [82]  This conviction was reiterated by Saint Paul VI in his Encyclical Populorum Progressio. There we read that no one can feel authorized to “appropriate surplus goods solely for his [or her] own private use when others lack the bare necessities of life.” [83] In his address to the United Nations, Pope advocate of poor peoples Paul VI spoke as the [84] and urged the international community to build a world of solidarity.
January 3, 2026 at 8:03 AM
richard.wickedproblems.earth
The most haunting phrase in John Gray’s New Leviathans is his recounting of the (pseudonymous) Simon Leys’ description of the Cultural Revolution aftermath “The problem is not that they were not identified; on the contrary, it is simply that there are too many of them.”
More than ninety percent of the people who committed crimes during that period – murder, torture, looting – remain unpunished. The problem is not that they were not identified; on the contrary, it is simply that there are too many of them. In most cases, they were quietly reinstalled in their former positions. Since the bitterest fighting and the worst atrocities generally took place between rival factions within the walls of particular ‘units’ (administrations, factories, schools, etc.), now it is not rare to find murderers sharing the same office or the same cramped living quarters with the close relatives, associates, and friends of their victims. People who have been beaten up, denounced, betrayed, and sent to jail by their own colleagues or
December 26, 2025 at 7:46 PM