Favorites July 10th 2024
Yesterday, it was looking like biden had things wrapped up, AOC endorsed him staying in. But this didn't last long, an anonymous senator said only 6 Democratic senators supported biden staying in. Next Senator Murray publicly suggested Biden should turn down the nomination. When it was just Senator Warner, White House staff highlighted that it was "just one" senator. They're clearly not thinking through their strategy. When George Clooney published an op-ed calling for Biden to not run after seeing him do poorly at a fundraiser, the campaign said Clooney didn't stay long at the fundraiser, but others did, and they agree with Clooney! Biden is trying to make an argument that him stepping down would be defying the will of the primary voters, but that's dubious. He won the primary by convincing everyone else not to run. Congressman Torres, who criticised his collegues for pushing Biden to pull out on Monday is now openly discussing 'deciding' who to nominate. If Biden were running a more active campaign, this wouldn't be happening, but he literally can't. Senator Kaine doesn't quite come out and say he wants Biden to withdraw, like a mobster worried about being overheard, he hopes Biden will "do the Patriotic thing".
Popehat did not mince words about the presidential immunity SCOUTS case. The decision "threatens the Republic". Not good! Here's a whole thread about it from Popehat.
It spurs development in part because the Chinese companies build factories elsewhere, spreading expertise. That's good!
Because of how long it can take waiting for interconnect queues for new large solar power installations, building them alongside industrial facilities may become more common.
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Labor took power in the UK and the first thing they did was removed restrictions on building wind turbines. Nice to see. (src)(cached)
– New startups are beginning commercialization of silicon-anode batteries, which are expected to have big capacity and charging advantages. (src)(cached)
– Poland has signed a treaty agreeing to come to Ukraine's aid if Russia makes further significant advances. They know they'd be next. (src)(cached)
– In Computer Science, women with children actually out-earn those without, only by a bit though. I think there could be a selection effect there, but I haven't looked into it. (src)(cached)
– The NYTimes published an article about how elevators are more expensive in the US than the EU because of regulations. Some of the regulations are favored by US unions, so when YIMBYs point out that we need to reform these regulations, some on the left say that this is YIMBYs being anti-union. But that's dumb, EU unions are stronger than US ones, it's just that they don't push for bad regulations. In the case of elevators, they recognize that demand for installing elevators could go up if they reduce the amount of labor required to install them. (src)(cached)
– One single stair advocate points out the similarities with opponents of single stair reform to elevator regulation reform. (src)(cached)
– Slow Boring published an urbanist's take on robotaxis, but Tim Lee was able to point out a few more urbanist upsides to robotaxis missed by the original article. (src)(cached)
– Polling comparing various possible Biden alternatives (src)(cached)