by Benedict Vipers, GallupNovember 19, 2024.
Extract:
After more than two years of heavy conflict, Ukrainians are increasingly tired of the war with Russia. Gallup’s latest surveys of Ukraine, conducted in August and October 2024, show that an average of 52% of Ukrainians would like their country to negotiate an end to the war as soon as possible. Nearly four in ten Ukrainians (38%) believe that their country should keep fighting until victory.
Ukrainians’ current attitudes toward the war represent a decisive shift from where they stood after it began in late February 2022. Surveys in the months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion found Ukrainians defiant, with 73% preferring to fight to victory.
by Chris Horner, Wall Street JournalNovember 17, 2024. (Print edition of November 18.)
To wait. What? Trump admits a mistake? But it’s not what you might think.
Extract:
Agencies cannot lie about their reasons for imposing a regulation – a doctrine known as the anti-pretext rule. Yet it happens. EPA Administrator Michael Regan, for example, has done that demonstrated willingness to use authorities that have nothing to do with climate change, to force the closure of factories to achieve climate goals. This gives the new administration an opportunity to rein in some of the Biden administration’s most egregious overreaches before the rules achieve their intended outcome.
Trump administration officials will need to immediately review the agencies’ internal files to determine the record of pretextual regulations and other improprieties. Government lawyers will then have to admit these irregularities in court.
“Admission of error” is the practice of government attorneys informing a court that the state has made a legal error and that annulment of an agency’s judgment is warranted. A change in management philosophy or interpretation is insufficient. But the courts would almost certainly accept an admission of error of law, fact or procedure, supported by documents illustrating the admitted misconduct.
by Alyssia Finley, Wall Street JournalNovember 17, 2024. (Print edition of November 18.)
Extract:
Then came the vaccines. Officials overestimated its benefits and downplayed its potential risks. People who claimed to have experienced side effects were shunned. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was late in warning about myocarditis as a side effect. US public health authorities have still not recognized some rare side effects European counterparts such as temporary facial paralysis and abnormal skin sensations.
And:
The Food and Drug Administration further eroded public trust by requesting a Freedom of Information Act request to withhold data it relied on to approve Pfizer‘s Covid vaccine. The agency also gave the green light to admissions for children who were at low risk for Covid, a recommendation based on sloppy dataas I noted at the time.
And some well-deserved skepticism about RFK Jr.’s worldview:
He’s also right that Americans would be healthier if they ate fewer processed foods and exercised more, which are better ways to lose weight than taking medications. But high-calorie foods, not additives, are causing an increase in chronic disease and obesity. All-natural, non-GMO Häagen Dazs will not make Americans healthy again.
by Andrew P. Napolitano, antiwar.com, November 20, 2024.
Extract:
The military prosecutors — who entered plea negotiations two years ago after recognizing they cannot ethically defend President George W. Bush’s torture regime — complied with the Pentagon’s orders and asked Judge McCall to reject the plea.
Last week, the judge denied the government’s request, dismissing the Pentagon’s order and planned hearings at which Mohammed and the other defendants are likely to admit their guilt under oath.
The judge’s ruling is essentially unchallengeable. He ruled that when Defense Secretary Austin revoked the authority of General Escallier – a retired military judge – to agree to guilty pleas, it was too little, too late. By the time Sec. Austin removed General Escallier’s authority to approve guilty pleas in all Gitmo cases. She had already approved these pleas. Thus, she was fully in possession of the power to approve them at the time she signed the approvals.
DRH note: Every now and then I am reminded of the respect I have for many military officers. Not so much for SecDef.
by Jack Nicastro, RodeNovember 20, 2024.
Extract:
Californians have voted against raising the state’s minimum wage, despite raising it to $20 an hour for fast food workers Assembly Bill 1228 in 2023. Of the 31 minimum wage ballot initiatives since 1996, California’s Proposition 32 is only the third to fail.
Proposal 32 would have increased the current minimum wage from $16 per hour to $18 per hour for businesses with more than 25 employees by 2025 and for businesses with 25 or fewer employees by 2026.
One of the unintended consequences of such a staggered increase in the minimum wage is that there will be fewer vacancies because companies would wait to hire their 26th employee. Under such a plan, the marginal cost of the 26th employee is $141,440 per year: the sum of one full-time worker paid $18 per hour, plus 25 full-time workers paid an additional $2 per hour. Unless the marginal product of that twenty-sixth worker defies the law of diminishing marginal returns, the 25-employee firm is slowing its expansion and producing less than it otherwise would. Californians’ rejection of Proposition 32 prevents this distortion.
DRH Comment: This is great news. Note also the nice use of thinking in the margins in the last paragraph quoted above. The bottom line is that you will almost never see a company hiring just its 26th employee. If the company were to expand from 25 employees, it would almost certainly add 4 or more employees.
by Matt Posey, thetruthaboutcars.comNovember 15, 2024.
Extract:
Hertz is foolishly betting the farm on vehicles whose main benefit is that you can easily charge them at home as part of your normal weekly routine. Handing electric cars over to a customer base who were unlikely to be able to charge their cars overnight and who would undoubtedly drive more miles than the daily commute would warrant was honestly one of the worst ideas I’ve seen in a heard for a while.
DRH note: I could see this coming. I could see it in the reactions of other customers and in my resistance to Hertz trying to get me into an electric car. And the reason is obvious: when you travel long distances, which you often do in a rental car, it is much more difficult to charge than when you travel daily.