IRC in this context is ‘International Residential Code’, which is generally wood frame construction. Max Dubler simplified this (cached) as “blue state climate denial”. One very interesting thread here about how the combination of LA county's rebuild restrictions and California SB 330 may constitute an 'illegal taking' (cached).
Medicaid payment system has been shut down for multiple states. Doctors and hospitals suddenly can’t get paid. Sorta seems like they did it accidentally (cached) while trying to 'shut down DEI'. And they already canceled the freeze (cached) on grants
This was as part of her writing a steel man case on behalf of James Damore? Kelsey Piper gave it a shot eight years later. I think the best TL;DR of her conclusion is: regardless of other stuff, try to keep commitments to classical liberal principles. (src)(cached)
Longer Reads
• A short thread with data arguing that most of the difference in longevity between America and Europe is not healthcare. It's still due in part to differences in governance (cached), many of the other factors are themselves due to policy choices, just not healthcare ones. (src)(cached)
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Trump is threatening tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductors. Very stupid. (src)(cached)
– It actually seems unlikely that Nvidia’s stock dropped because of DeepSeek. (src)(cached)
– Waymo is now operating on freeways for employee passengers in LA. (src)(cached)
– Wired is hesitating to report the names of the top officials at OPM because they are so young. Commenter jokes that they’re acting line these kids were caught smoking weed instead of in charge of a critical component of the US government. (src)(cached)
– FTC siding with Temu against Amazon is insane, even Lina Khan (cached) this wasn't obviously bad for US competitiveness, although it's close. (src)(cached)
– Really good counter argument to people who think Musk wasn’t doing a Nazi salute. “If that’s a normal greeting, do it right now on live TV” (src)(cached)
– Democrats continue to crush it with high information high motivation voters, winning a state senate seat in Iowa that went Trump +21 in November. Ann Selzer’s polls called *this* one perfectly (src)(cached)
– Gruber speculates why Apple and Google are blocking TikTok on the app stores but Akamai and Oracle are allowing the apps to use their services. It’ll be gradual pressure this way, can’t upgrade phones or you’ll lose the app. (src)
– If the president ignores the law when it comes to funding programs he disagrees with, there’s no way to make appropriations deals. (src)(cached)
– Waymo is doing demonstrations in 10 cities this year, starting with Vegas and San Diego (src)
– Another way to bribe Trump: settle frivolous lawsuits he brings for huge amounts of money. (src)(cached)
– I was not aware Americans spend more on lottery tickets than on concerts and sports combined. (src)(cached)