insane primal blessing

Wuhan Railway Station in China is bigger than many airport terminals in the West and has more bullet train lines than many countries have altogether

I'm glad that the author of "Rent Control Is Fine, Actually" calls themself Unlearning Economics, bc it's good to just state things clearly, such as the open animosity that many left economic populists have for the field of economics and economists themselves. Economists aren't gods, and economics isn't a divine truth, but economists are good--better than most--at something critical for making public policy: They're good at identifying tradeoffs. "Rents are too high, so freeze them" is compelling politics. But in the absence of other pro-supply policies, if you make it illegal to increase rents, landlords will stop upgrading units and convert them to condos, which reduces the supply of units for rent, reduces mobility, and drives up rents for everybody else. The left econ populists have some clear, and clearly stated, policy ideas: - Rents are too high, so freeze them. - Electricity is expensive, so stop rate increases. - Homes are too expensive, so ban institutional investors. - Power prices are rising, so ban data center construction. ... All these policies feel like solutions because they're brisk, they name enemies, and they take on the most visible source of frustration. But they are much better as villain-naming exercises than they are as a complete public policy. On their own, each creates other problems: less housing built, less clean electricity built, abdicating energy policy by encouraging AI firms to build data centers abroad in unsavory countries with more emissions, etc. I can't think of a single economic populist idea that wouldn't be helped with a little dose of economics, which is why it's troubling when I see the left participating in, and even celebrating, the great unlearning of economics.

Something you're seeing today is that one of the signature characteristics of the left insurgents is they are very graceless about winning. They got what they wanted in Maine, but instead of pivoting to bring people in and beat Susan Collins they're doing ongoing factionalism.

Jon Favreau questions DNC Chair Ken Martin on why he won't release the DNC's autopsy on the 2024 election.

The argument for "genocide" in Gaza always relies on expanding the definition of genocide in ways which would encompass most wars ever fought.