“Remember that guy who became a meme more than a decade ago screaming in a YouTube video for people to ‘LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!’? The ‘cry’ for privacy, ironically, went viral in the personification of the ‘Streisand Effect’ – when the attempt to get people not to look at something causes more people to look than otherwise would have. With the exception of Hollywood, politics is full of people desperate to have their privacy respected … just ask their publicists. Some people lead lives of example – something to aspire or look up to – while others lead lives that can best be described as cautionary tales. Whatever side of that divide you fall (and most people spend time on both sides, living their lives largely on the line in the middle), attention is always given to those who scream the loudest and act the dumbest.” (02/25/25)
“The new administration has at last come to DC, and opportunities for genuine reform, it seems, abound. Positive energy has been flowing since the recent ‘vibe-shift’ made cracks in the edifice of the progressive status quo. The breadth of the new governing coalition — from post-liberal populists to libertarians and practically everything in between those poles — has opened up a realm of creativity and enthusiasm for seeking fresh solutions to problems long thought to be intractable.” (02/25/25)
“For three years now, the U.S.-NATO policy of eschewing peace talks in Ukraine and pursuing a hypothetical and increasingly unlikely military victory has been predicated on defending democracy. Ukraine, we were told, has a vibrant, flourishing democracy, and preserving its survival is worth any cost — including the tremendous loss of life, physical destruction, and economic devastation borne by the country as a result of this policy. Yet now, Western media and commentators are in a state of panic at simply the idea that Ukraine might have to do what they’ve been saying is the entire mission of the war effort: act like a democracy.” (02/25/25)
“Statistical forgery is usually associated with autocratic and illiberal governments, as well as economically unsuccessful and extremely corrupt administrations. For instance, less democratic countries are more likely to fudge their official statistics. Comparing GDP growth to night-time electricity usage (which is highly correlated to GDP), researchers find that non-democracies tend to overstate economic growth by approximately 35%. … American statistics, it should be noted, may have flaws of various kinds, but are generally accurate: the Billion Prices Project, tracking the online price of a billion goods in 2015 and 2016, resulted in remarkably similar readings to the official CPI. So with a good starting point, and since autocracy, economic failure, and corruption are all on the menu for the Trump and Musk duumvirate, it’s worth taking a close look at how they could pull it off.” (02/25/25)
“I think that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have been misinformed. I don’t disagree with their shutting down USAID, but I think it’s rather small fry. There are much, much bigger fish to fry if you want to really save U.S. government money that is being wasted in programs that are mischievously justified as aid to the poor people of the world. Elon, hear me out: if you walk northwest from your headquarters at the Eisenhower Executive Building along Pennsylvania Avenue, you’ll come after one long block upon two ugly buildings squatting beside each other. One is the World Bank. The other is the International Monetary Fund (IMF).” (02/25/25)
“Things looked bad recently for Leland Dudek, an employee of the Social Security Administration. Dudek almost got fired for helping the DOGE team understand how SSA’s systems work so that DOGE could zero in on wasteful or fraudulent payments. … An investigation? Administrative leave? For helping, as an executive-branch employee, the head of the executive branch to find and extirpate waste and fraud? SSA managers may have been confused about whether Donald Trump really is the president. The suspense didn’t last long. Dudek was not fired. Instead, the SSA commissioner was fired and Dudek became acting commissioner.” (02/25/25)
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dennis Kucinich and Elizabeth Kucinich
“The era of unchecked military expansion may be coming to an end, and for the first time in decades, the ability of the defense industry to influence U.S. military policy is being curtailed. Will it happen? We don’t know, but President Trump’s bold proposal to cut Pentagon spending reflects his signature negotiation style – starting with an aggressive position to shift the conversation and force a change in conditions, in this case – scrutiny of military waste. Rather than a rigid policy demand, Trump’s talk of a 50% cut in military spending challenges the entrenched interests of the military-industrial complex, putting pressure on defense contractors to reduce costs, compelling Congress to justify every dollar spent.” (02/25/25)
“The law of supply and demand is the most basic insight in economics. When there’s more of a good available for sale than people who want to buy it, the price goes down, and when more people want to buy the good than is available, the price goes up. As progressives have learned the hard way with housing, there is no magical government intervention to get around this. That law presents a bit of a problem for President Donald Trump’s agenda on oil. On one hand, Trump ran on criticisms of Biden-era inflation, including high gas prices. He also wants to drive down oil prices to pressure Russia. On the other hand, Trump wants to cut off Iranian oil exports in order to ‘bankrupt’ the country and build leverage in negotiations. In other words, he’s trying to both increase and reduce the oil supply at the same time.” (02/24/25)
“The outrage over $2 billion being handed to a Stacey Abrams-related start-up by the defeated Joe Biden administration is justified. But it is not surprising. Climate spending by the Biden White House was always political. In 2022, President Joe Biden tapped long-time Democrat operative John Podesta to oversee the disbursement of $375 billon to climate-related initiatives – monies that were included in the dishonestly named ‘Inflation Reduction Act.’ Those funds were supposed to be spent on projects that would drive the country towards Democrats’ goal of a 40% reduction in carbon output below 2005 levels by 2030. In reality, the funds set up a gigantic slush fund within the White House, available to Podesta as he set about boosting Democrats’ prospects in 2024.” (02/25/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by David Youngberg
“Los Angeles needs more housing. Now, more than ever.
The fires that roared through the city in January 2025 were nothing short of devastating, with over 16,000 structures destroyed and an estimated 150,000 people displaced. In the wake of the disaster, victims scoured the still-hot wreckage for scraps of their former lives. The immensity of their loss was only dwarfed by its suddenness. And then there’s the rent. The mass destruction of homes exacerbated L.A.’s already pricey housing market. Rents substantially shot up, sometimes more than doubling. As is often the case in the aftermath of disaster, the public demanded that the government freeze prices. Disasters create the political will necessary to enact sweeping reforms, but rent control is the wrong approach because it discourages construction and causes more harm than good. Fortunately the city has not (yet) gone down this route.” (02/24/25)
