best domestic policy president of my lifetime. a rough tenure on international affairs.

Biden managed quite extraordinarily to overcome Congressional obstructionism by ordinary negotiation. he was unwilling to mint the coin, still somehow negotiated past the “ransom” Rs demanded for the debt ceiling, got the rescue plan, CHIPs, IRA, and infrastructure through Congress. wow.

(they likely would have blocked attempts at the expansionary fiscal policy that the times called for.)

if Helene was caused by a Chinese hoax, how should we respond?

what if Biden just forgave the loans anyway? it’d be an official act for which he’d have at least presumptive if not absolute immunity. he can use his conclusive and preclusive pardon power the absolve all the subordinates and functionaries who would have to participate.

I’m unhappily surprised there is no provision declaring an outcome invalid + reversing trades if a candidate fails to become President by virtue of untimely death or debilitation. ForecastEx is the prediction mkt whose contracts will trade on Interactive Brokers data.forecastex.com/regulatory/P...

i'd love to learn more about the institutional differences between US and e.g. European unions that renders automation resistance (and featherbedding generally) much more prominent in the US than in other, more unionized, economies. does sectoral bargaining somehow diminish these aspects?

Is the ubiquitously paywalled media ecosystem of today more or less healthy than the media ecosystem of the early 2000s “information wants to be free” era? are the larger worlds they subsist in just too different to render a comparison meaningful?

Usually people who begin a claim with “I’m sorry, but…” aren’t actually sorry.

A key tactic of right-wing politics is identifying and then sabotaging the parts of government whose smooth functioning would prevent the crisis you want to demagogue.

"Congress needs to repeal the Federal Arbitration Act." ~Matthew Saroff 40yrs.blogspot.com/2024/10/yeah... // If you've ever clicked anything on the internet (or someone else clicked stuff on your phone) + you get injured in an Uber, you'll be going to arbitration rather than have your day in court

me too!

a thing i would not have predicted, presidential prediction markets on Interactive Brokers.

It’s a bit weird to hold up FL as example of good YIMBY policy. FL policy does help get a lot of multifamily housing built! But overwhelmingly in ways contrary to YIMBY urbanist/environmental ideals. Maybe some restriction shld attach to liberties YIMBYs recommend? www.slowboring.com/p/housing-po...

sure it can be a bit wriggly, maybe even a little bit gross, but that’s just what a healthy macrobiome looks like.

am i the only person for whom the names “vance” and “walz” code as oddly similar? i sometimes hear a claim about one and misinterpret it as referring to the other until i double-check myself.

freedom includes the right to be left alone, but that doesn’t mean being left alone should be the default.

“And so every American who had a home became the enemy of every American who didn't – including one another's children. Every home built threatened your own property values.” ~Cory Doctorow pluralistic.net/2024/10/01/h...