[I]n addition to being treacherous and menacing, the insurrectionists are also, strictly speaking, pathetic. These are grown men and women whose lives are apparently so devoid of other sources of meaning that their self-worth depends on who occupies the White House.
Tag: women
Robinhood: Stealing from the Poor to Give to the Rich
Robinhood’s terms of service specify that it “may, in its discretion, prohibit or restrict the trading of securities.” That clause may or may not sufficiently cover the company’s posterior in a legal sense. But in this application, it gives lie to the company’s name and supposed mission.
Avian Flu, Elected Transgender Women, Macron on Brexit, Pedophile Castration, & Pope Francis (30m) – Episode 447
Episode 447 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following news stories: from IndianExpress.com, “Avian flu confirmed: 1,800 migratory birds found dead in Himachal”; from PinkNews.co.uk, “Two trans women win election in historic moment for LGBT+ visibility in India” (Wikipedia.org, “LGBT themes in Hindu mythology”); from reddit.com, “Brexit a product of ‘lies and false promises’, Macron says in New Year’s message”; from JakartaGlobe.id, “Child Predators to be Chemically Castrated Under New Regulation”; and from TheGuardian.com, “Pope condemns travelling abroad to escape coronavirus lockdowns” (YouTube / Ivor Cummins, “Crucial Viral Update Jan 4th – Europe and USA – Covers it ALL”).
Social Desirability Bias vs. Tourism
Economically speaking, there’s a straightforward win-win case for these Mexican resorts: Not only do they make the tourists happier; they make the Mexicans happier by providing them with better opportunities than they have elsewhere in the Mexican economy. If you reconsider this verdict through the distorted lens of Social Desirability Bias, though, a radically different picture appears before your eyes. Once you forget economics, you could easily describe the resort experience in the following sordid way.
Welfare for the Wealthier? What Else is New?
The main function of the state is to redistribute wealth from the productive class to the political class. That’s inherently an upward redistribution, and the “middle class” is half-fish, half-fowl: Partly productive class, partly a hodgepodge of political constituencies well-positioned to grab a share of the grift as bribes for their continuing support.
Be Grateful for Capitalism This Thanksgiving
If government controlled the production of turkeys and toilet paper, this would be a very unhappy holiday.
COVID-19 Panic is the New State Religion
The TL;DR on COVID-19: Panic, not science, continues to drive the public policy discussion.
Breonna Taylor’s Killers, Anarchist Jurisdictions, & Turkey’s Speech Prisons (39m) – Episode 386
Episode 386 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following news stories: from USA Today, “‘Vigorous’ self-defense laws likely prevented homicide charges in Breonna Taylor’s death, experts say” (Wikipedia entry on Breonna Taylor’s death, Reason’s coverage); from Wave3 News, “Jon Mattingly: Officer involved in Breonna Taylor shooting sends candid email to LMPD colleagues”; from NBC New York, “DOJ Designates New York City as an ‘Anarchist Jurisdiction'”; from Alarabiya, “Turkey sentences female politician to prison for calling Erdogan ‘enemy of women’”; and from Next City, “Atlanta’s Trying to Support, Not Punish, Its Teenage Water Vendors” (Full council report).
The Missing Right-Wing Firms: A Beckerian Puzzle
Most research on the economics of discrimination focuses on race and gender, but Becker’s framework works equally well for political bigotry.
Mustafa Akyol: Islam without Extremes, a Muslim Case for Liberty (25m)
This episode features from writer and journalist Mustafa Akyol from 2011. Akyol argues that “a fundamental need for the contemporary Muslim world is to embrace liberty – the liberty of individuals and communities, Muslim and non-Muslims, believers and unbelievers, women and men, ideas and opinions, markets and entrepreneurs.”