Favorites March 3rd 2022

Jacob T. Levy @jtlevy

It's been a week since Russia invaded Ukraine. In a week, Warsaw hadn't fallen in 1939, Baghdad hadn't fallen in 2003, and the US hadn't captured Noriega in 1989. I don't know what's going to happen but I worry that a lot of people expect war to happen at the speed of Twitter.

Seriously, don't get your hopes up about Ukraine, even if things are going badly for Russia. Russia is settling in for a protracted fight.

Kevin Rothrock @KevinRothrock

Russian lawmakers have introduced legislation that would conscript into the military anyone arrested for protesting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These people would be forced to fight in the invasion itself. What the fuck is happening to Russia. This is absolute madness.

Not a great way to select soldiers folks. Probably a good way to just give away Russian military vehicles to Ukraine. Although it seems to sorta be what they're doing already.

Ezra Klein @ezraklein

Just an insane decision. And note that this lawsuit is being brought under the California Environmental Quality Act, though everyone, on all sides, knows the issues here aren't environmental. So please, stop telling me how CEQA has already been fixed.

sfchronicle.comUC Berkeley must withhold thousands of acceptance letters after state Supreme Court rulingThe ruling means UC Berkeley must temporarily freeze enrollment, dealing a blow to more...

This absolutely sucks, hopefully it finally motivates fixing CEQA. Here's more background. Robert Cruickshank: "Time to call NIMBYism what it really is: a war against young people and their future."

Anders Åslund @anders_aslund

This is quite extraordinary. China is more than neutral in favor of Ukraine: "China-based AIIB freezes lending to Russia and Belarus over Ukraine war"

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They're probably going to need to be more obvious if they want to get through to Putin.

Dan De Luce @dandeluce

US European Command has set up a communication channel with counterparts at Russian Ministry of Defense to avoid any accidents, unintended clashes between U.S. and Russian forces around Ukraine, senior defense official tells @NBCNews. @ckubeNBC scoops

This is good, although it's terrifying that this is necessary.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Fund the tax police https://t.co/9khG9WQLmw

Natasha Sarin @NatashaRSarin

Bipartisan tax experts on need to invest in the IRS, per @BudgetHawks: “higher funding will more than pay for itself by allowing the IRS to better collect taxes owed under the law while drastically improving Americans” satisfaction with our tax system” https://t.co/CSpLcuB4ai

Maybe collect more taxes automatically too?

Megan McArdle @asymmetricinfo

I feel like the point at which the dictator's troops are shelling Europe's largest nuclear power plant is the point at which we should probably stop debating whether he is simply a rational actor mounting a calculated, completely understandable response to NATO expansion.

(AP Confirms) Seems bad. The good news is that this is a modern nuclear reactor, it's not gonna Chernobyl on them, worst case is a leak, but you still shouldn't shoot at it. Is this meant to discourage Germany from keeping their nuclear power online? That seems like too clever for Putin at the moment.

Rapt333red @rapto333red

@NotWoofers

Russian Stock Market closed for the 5th straight day.

Scotland 2017