System Update, episode 489
Source: System Update
“World Finally Horrified by Israel’s Atrocities in Gaza; Mass Starvation Expert Warns of Spiraling Crisis in Gaza; AOC Votes to Fund Israel’s Iron Dome.” (07/21/25)
This was never about housing
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Eugenio Garza
“Gentrification has cultural, historical, legal, ethical, and social dimensions. At its core, it is an economic phenomenon. And a fairly straightforward one: as demand increases for housing in attractive, dynamic, and safe neighborhoods, so do average rents. With the entrance of more affluent residents, local business owners respond to new incentives and offer goods and services catering to the new arrivals, almost always increasing prices (and sometimes even increasing quality). Due to the inelastic nature of housing supply and regulations that hinder the expansion of available housing, market prices rise in ways that can seem ‘excessive’ to the public. Restrictive regulations and bureaucratization of the housing market, such as the lengthy and costly legal processes for lease disputes, tax structures that discourage investment in rental housing, and strict density restrictions, prevent agile increase in housing supply. With supply constrained, higher rents are not surprising.” (07/21/25)
Barack Obama and His Orange Jumpsuit
Source: Town Hall
by Alan Joseph Bauer
“I had a quirky senior year high school English teacher. He was the only Ph.D. I had as an instructor before I got to college. He was extremely bright and quite demanding, a trait for which I am most grateful today. One day, much to the surprise of everybody, he said that he used to write material for the Second City comedy group. He brought with him a record of one of his skits and a record player. The setting is the Art Institute of Chicago. A tour guide (Alan Arkin) stops by a particularly famous painting and begins to explain its key features and historical importance. An impatient tourist comments, ‘I don’t like it.’ Without losing a beat, the tour guide responds indignantly, ‘You’re wrong.’ That little exchange could explain much of Western politics during the past 20 years.” (07/22/25)
China: Regime alleges cover-up in lead poisoning of 200 children
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Dozens of provincial officials and hospital staff attempted to cover up a lead poisoning case that made hundreds of children sick in north-west China and sparked widespread outrage, an official investigation has found. The officials tampered with the blood tests of students who were poisoned at Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui city, Gansu provincial authorities said in a report on Sunday. City officials also accepted bribes from an investor in Peixin while neglecting food safety inspections across several pre-schools, the report said. In an attempt to attract more students, Peixin chefs had used inedible paint to ‘enhance the look’ of its meals, the report said. Food samples were later found to contain lead 2,000 times in excess of the national safety limit..” (07/22/25)
The Long Library, episode 5
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
“The Justice and Prudence of War: Toward A Libertarian Analysis.” (07/21/25)
The Hard Right Comes for Japan
Source: Persuasion
by Quico Toro
“Hard-right anti-immigrant politics just got its beachhead in Japan, the land of sleepy, staid consensus politics. The Sanseitō Party, founded just five years ago, broke through from obscurity to claim almost 12.5% of the vote in yesterday’s Upper House election, landing itself a substantial bench of Councillors and proving that the appeal of the populist hard right isn’t confined to the West. The ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party—the party that has governed Japan for 64 of the last 70 years—ended up just shy of the seats it needed for a majority.” (07/21/25)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-hard-right-comes-for-japan
Australia: Parliament resumes after Labor’s landslide election victory
Source: ABC News
“Australia’s Parliament resumed Tuesday for the first time since the center-left Labor Party won one of the nation’s largest-ever majorities in the May elections. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese thanked the traditional owners of the national capital Canberra at a Welcome to Country ceremony in Parliament House. He noted that such ceremonies performed by Indigenous people to welcome visitors to their traditional land at the start of a new parliament had been introduced by a Labor government in 2007. … The government has said the first legislation will be a bill to reduce student loan debt by 20%.” (07/22/25)
Show-Me Institute Podcast, 07/21/25
Source: Show-Me Institute
“One Big Beautiful Bill Breakdown, Part II with Elias Tsapelas.” (07/21/25)
The Economic Success of Singapore and Hong Kong
Source: Cobden Centre
by Lipton Matthews
“Bryan Cheang’s Economic Liberalism and the Developmental State is a timely and intellectually daring book that enters the long-standing debate over the East Asian economic miracle with clarity, rigor, and a revisionist sensibility. Rather than choosing sides between neoliberal praise of market freedom and statist acclaim for technocratic planning, Cheang proposes a more careful reading of the historical and institutional differences between Hong Kong and Singapore. His conclusion is arresting: Hong Kong’s relatively laissez-faire colonial legacy fostered a more productive, innovative, and entrepreneurial society than Singapore’s developmental state.” (07/21/25)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/07/the-economic-success-of-singapore-and-hong-kong/
37 peacocks reported missing from historic California hotel
Source: SFGate
“Authorities are looking for several peacocks that were allegedly stolen over the past week from a historic hotel in the California Delta. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office received a call Sunday morning reporting that as many as 37 peacocks were taken from the Ryde Hotel in Walnut Grove, Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesperson for the office, told SFGATE. But as of Monday afternoon, only six have been confirmed missing, Gandhi said. Managers at the hotel along the Sacramento River told KCRA-TV that over the past several days, they had begun to notice fewer of the peacocks that normally walked around the hotel’s grounds. One peacock even used to walk through the ballroom, Rafe Goorwitch, the hotel’s catering coordinator, told the news outlet. The hotel, known for its garden and wedding venue, has had peacocks for ‘at least a generation or so,’ Goorwitch told the outlet.” (07/21/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/peacocks-reported-missing-historic-calif-hotel-20779354.php