Champion of Truth
“absent a comprehensive permitting reform bill that shrinks the role of the federal government, developers in the U.S. will be unable to rapidly build out power generation to meet future demand.”
https://reason.com/2024/11/11/regulations-are-making-it-harder-to-meet-the-nations-power-demands/
“A recent study showed women experience a short-term “motherhood penalty” but their earnings rebound within a decade.”
Still a big impact on wealth though.
https://reason.com/2024/11/12/theres-more-to-the-motherhood-penalty/
“The biggest housing issue on the California ballot was rent control. Proposition 33 would have repealed all state-level limits on local rent control policies, thus giving cities and counties a free hand to regulate rents however they pleased.
The measure went down in flames on Election Day, with roughly 60 percent of voters casting a “no” ballot.
That result is good news for the availability of rental housing in California, given rent control’s well-documented history of reducing rental housing supply and quality.
It is nevertheless a somewhat surprising result. California has a much higher proportion of renters than most other states and polls consistently find that rent control is supported by a wide majority of respondents. Dozens of cities already have rent control policies on the books.”
…
“Prop. 36 asked California voters if they wanted to increase legal penalties for certain drug and theft crimes. With roughly 70 percent of ballots counted, some 70 percent of voters said yes they do. Prop. 36 has earned majority support in every single county in the state.”
https://reason.com/2024/11/12/california-voters-opt-for-orderly-urbanism-on-election-day/
“A Russian court on Monday denied relief to a U.S. citizen serving 12 years in a penal colony for treason in connection with a $51.80 donation she made, while in the U.S., to a pro-Ukraine charity.
Ksenia Karelina, who is also a Russian citizen, was arrested in January during a trip to visit her 90-year-old grandmother and other family members in Yekaterinburg, Russia. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2012 and became a citizen in 2021.
Trouble for Karelina, 33, began shortly after landing in Russia, where the Federal Security Service (FSB) flagged her after learning she had a U.S. passport. The agency interrogated her, took her cell phone—on which the FSB discovered her 2022 donation to Razom, a charity dedicated to “actively contributing to the establishment of a secure, prosperous, and democratic Ukraine”—and ultimately arrested her for “petty hooliganism,” which was later ratcheted up to treason. Her prosecution is part of a larger Russian crackdown on alleged treason that is unprecedented even by the country’s illiberal standards.”
https://reason.com/2024/11/13/russian-court-denies-appeal-of-u-s-citizen-sentenced-to-12-years-for-donating-51-to-pro-ukraine-charity/
“Situations like the ones we’ve seen in Lewisville, West Ocean City, and countless other places highlight how bankrupt our current approach to “helping human trafficking victims” is. If these women really are in trouble, there has got to be a better way to get them services than making them jack off a cop (sometimes several times) first. And if they’re neither victims nor perpetuating harm against anyone, then leave them alone.”
https://reason.com/2024/11/13/texas-cops-fired-for-inappropriate-sexual-contact-with-massage-workers/
The suicide bombings of the second intifada shattered the Israeli left and ended the Israeli belief that a peace process could work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aFbNJALXBw
Taliban is dealing with difficult insurgencies and is still partnered with Al Qaeda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDPIxTSoGRE
“Kobane, Syria, was home to one of the most famous military turning points in history. A small force of Kurdish guerrillas, pressed between the advancing Islamic State group and the Turkish border, was supposed to have fallen quickly in a tragic last stand. Obama administration officials said as much. Instead, the Kurds of Kobane successfully held out for six months, enough time for the cavalry—the U.S. Air Force and rebels from elsewhere in Syria—to arrive.”
…
“Kobane came under attack again. With the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus and the uncertainty over what comes next, Turkey has been seeking an opportunity to wipe out its Kurdish opponents and carve out a puppet state in Syria’s north. With air cover from the Turkish Air Force, militias known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) overran the nearby city of Manbij and marched toward Kobane.
“In the last war, the people fled to Turkey. This time, it will be a genocide,” Berivan Hesen, a member of Kobane’s local government who lived through the Islamic State group’s siege, said via text message on Tuesday. “They are all ISIS by a different name.” Hesen notes that many of the people living in Kobane now had fled from other parts of Syria under Turkish and SNA control, such as Afrin, where the same forces have committed looting, rape, and torture since occupying it in 2018.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to “American mediation” with Turkey, the SDF’s Gen. Mazloum Abdi announced on Tuesday night, withdrawing forces from Manbij in hopes that Kobane would be spared. (The next day, Turkey launched drone strikes across North and East Syria.)”
https://reason.com/2024/12/11/syrias-rojava-revolution-is-in-grave-danger/
“Large banks will have to cap overdraft fees charged when customers try to withdraw more money than is available in their accounts, the CFPB announced Thursday. Under the new rule, which has been in development since early this year, banks will be allowed to charge no more than $5 for overdraft fees, or will have to set fees to ensure they are only covering costs and not earning a profit from them.
There are currently no limits on those fees, and the average overdraft fee is about $35, according to the CFPB. The bureau estimates that the new rule will save consumers about $5 billion annually.
But there will certainly be some unintended consequences to the change, as there are any time a price control—which is, broadly speaking, what this rule amounts to—is mandated. Rather than charging overdraft fees to cover an excessive withdrawal, banks may revert to the older practice of simply declining those transactions.
As Jon Berlau, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, explained to the CFPB in 2022, the introduction of overdraft fees was originally a consumer-friendly development that was initially offered only to bank’s wealthier clients but eventually became commonplace.
Indeed, many banking customers would likely prefer paying a nominal fee versus the frustration of not being able to pay for some vital purchase. That choice might soon be taken away.”
https://reason.com/2024/12/12/capping-overdraft-fees-will-hurt-some-of-the-people-it-is-supposed-to-help/
Feds Approve $80 Million Budget for ‘Private’ Horse Racing Regulator
https://reason.com/2024/11/13/feds-approve-80-million-budget-for-private-horse-racing-regulator