It's a very strange phenomenon to be sitting here awaiting an Iranian drone attack. We're used to rocket attacks, where you get like a minute's warning. Now, the drones are literally in the air but they aren't expected to arrive for, like, six hours.

Launching drones that fly at <200km/h from ~1,000km away is about the most telegraphed attack you could conceive of (though one assumes there might be missiles fired later as well)

So, um, people in SF are just much better drivers these days, yes? sfchronicle.com/crime/article/…

Is economics self-correcting? Our paper on replications & comments in the AER is now out in Economic Inquiry (in a special issue on replication I4R). There is some interesting material, including a survey of all living former AER editors. 1/n onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

Meanwhile in Russia: state TV experts discussed Mike Johnson's meeting with Trump as the deciding factor in whether Ukraine will receive stalled US funding. Referring to Mike Johnson, state TV host Olga Skabeeva claimed him as 'theirs,' just like Trump.
youtu.be/CJqmf1n7xSY

Among the many excellent points in this piece is this: The Congressional stalemate is testing the theory that cutting off aid will bring negotiations—and the theory is failing miserably. Instead, we see the opposite: Ukraine’s not giving up, and Russia is only pressing harder.

“I started telling them, ‘I’m not an Arab, I’m a Jew.’ They ran toward me, screaming in terror and grabbed me, shouting, ‘You’re a Jew, how are you not ashamed of yourself?' Some were in IDF uniforms and holding guns. There were 20 or 30 of them who beat me as I shouted for help”

Every day, Ukraine is losing its people, its territory, its electricity. I ask Congress to vote now on Ukraine aid. It’s vital to US interests that Russia is stopped from taking a country of 40M by force. We lived this history in Europe before & we know the cost of failing to act

Given the good polling for Biden lately, I was looking at the recent trendlines. While it's tempting to credit the poll bounce to the strong SoTU, you'll see the upward trend actually started when Taylor Swift won the Superbowl, just as the deep state Democrats planned.

Even if the US House gets around to approving aid to Ukraine next week, they have allowed Russia a large window of opportunity to do great damage to Ukrainian infrastructure. The House has directly abetted Putin’s war effort.

The top 1 percent of earners paid nearly 46 percent of all income taxes in 2021 -- a record share of the federal tax burden.

reason.com/2024/04/12/the…

Israeli military says all forces on full alert, dozens of planes airborne as part of readiness for Iran threat

New: An internal memo from Samantha Power on the killing of a USAID official in Israel (a 20 year veteran): “Colleagues -

It is with immense sadness that I share the devastating news that Jacob Toukhy, a beloved member of our USAID/West Bank and Gaza Mission, was killed near…

The foundation’s pre-emptive surrender was a reminder that self-censorship is a feature of authoritarianism. The most effective regimes rely on a population internalizing the need to submit. Fearful of what comes next, they put the handcuffs on themselves. msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-…

Honestly this book seems incredibly worth it

Enough books from successful people, they're all the same. We need more books from total failures

Eid atmosphere in the local Old Town markets as kids surge to streets to enjoy the old traditional swings, hand-operated wheels, and horse pulled carriages. My childhood screened in front of my eyes yesterday. It is an amazing experience for me.
April 2024

Andy Kim collects Pokémon cards.

The guy he’ll replace in the Senate collects gold bars.