Favorite Rejects 2022-05-10

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

Well, there IS one mysterious guy who delivers every kid's Christmas presents while employing a vast army of underpaid servitors in freezing conditions. But I think kids shouldn't learn about this til they're teenagers. Let them keep their innocence.

Aella @Aella_Girl

When/if you have kids, did you/do you plan to tell them Santa exists?

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Putin’s explanation of the origins of the war in his Victory Day speech doesn’t really seem accurate to me — maybe a good sign since if the causes are made up he can decide to pretend to have fixed the fake problem and then stop the war?

Ryan Mac 🙃 @RMac18

Free PR advice: If a photographer asks you to do a photoshoot in all white while meditating, do not agree.

nytimes.comBolt Built $11 Billion Payment Business on Inflated Metrics and Eager InvestorsThe start-up has had a meteoric rise, thanks to its charismatic co-founder, Ryan Breslow. But he sometimes stretched the truth to get there.

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

One small change we'll be making to our Congressional forecasts this year is to weigh in-state fundraising more than out-of-state fundraising. Raising money from donors out of state isn't very predictive of electoral outcomes, whereas in-state money *is* fairly predictive.

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

Although it's not my job to tell people what to do with their money, it's probably the case that a lot of donor money is VERY badly spent on high-profile races where it makes little difference at the margin.

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

Induced demand is a useful concept but I think urbanists lean on it too heavily. If you double the width of a road and it stays equally congested it's not true that you haven't accomplished anything. The road is now helping twice as many people get where they want to go.

Sean O'Kane @sokane1

Elon Musk at the @FT conference just now: “I have to say the this this notion of induced demand is one of the single dumbest notions I've ever heard in my entire life."

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

As an city dweller I'm sympathetic to the idea that a lot of car use is bad and should be subsidized less by taxpayers. But we need make the case on the merits. We're not going to win the argument with a too-cute-by-half futility thesis.

Michael McAuliff @mmcauliff

Q: Are you comfortable with the protests that we saw outside the homes of Supreme Court justices? Schumer: Yes. my house, there's protests 3, 4 times a week outside.. That's the American way to peacefully protest.. [his phone rings].. that's my wife. Maybe there's a protest."

Kim-Mai Cutler @kimmaicutler

I get the feeling that the politics of a bad wave in the fall/winter would help them in the midterms? 😐 https://t.co/IPAXJHVyBa

Chad Pergram @ChadPergram

5) The path forward on the COVID bill is far from clear. The COVID bill re-ups the next set of vaccines, medicine and tests. There’s worry the U.S. could be left without supply if Congress fails to act. Moreover, people would have to pay out of their own pocket for treatments.