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President Biden is well-meaning but he’s absolutely wrong to send more military aid to Israel. The country has received over $260 billion from the U.S. since its founding. #israel #joebiden #military

"The first thing smart militants do is recognize that civilian attacks are a recipe for political failure," writes Max Abrahms, a political science professor at Northeastern University and author of Rules for Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History, a lengthy study of terrorism and insurgency. "You might say that the first rule for rebels is to not use terrorism at all." It's for this reason that Abrahms believes that Hamas' brutal attack on Israeli civilians is not only immoral but "a major strategic mistake" for the Palestinian cause. Abrahms traveled to the West Bank shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks amid a wave of Palestinian terrorism known as the "Second Intifada." What he found became the subject of his dissertation. While a previous influential study had concluded that Palestinian terrorism often resulted in "success" in achieving "significant territorial concessions," what Abrahms discovered by talking with Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank is that the terrorism "eroded support for territorial concessions while creating support for a fence" and likely blocked the possibility of independent statehood. JoinReason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel or Facebook page for a live discussion with Abrahms about how the lessons of his work apply to the current Israel-Hamas war, what is likely to happen to Gaza in the short- and long-term, and what the role of the U.S. should and shouldn't be in the conflict. Source material for this discussion: Times of Israel: “Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored repeated warnings of ‘something big’” https://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-intelligence-official-says-israel-ignored-repeated-warnings-of-something-big/ WSJ: Iran helped Hamas plot attack over several weeks - https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-israel-hamas-strike-planning-bbe07b25 Congressional Research Service Report, 2021: Total US aid to Israel - https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL33222/44 Congressional Research Service Report, Total US aid to Palestine (over $6.3 billion since 1950): https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46344/3 Biden provides half a billion in aid to Palestine: https://www.state.gov/u-s-support-for-the-palestinian-people/ “UNICEF estimates that there are roughly 1 million children living in the Gaza Strip, meaning that a little under half of all 2.1 million people in Gaza are children.” “But the blockade also tightly limits Palestinians’ access to basic supplies and food staples, and the U.N. estimates that it has cost the territory’s economy as much as $16.7 billion over 11 years.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/14/gaza-strip-history-geography/ Newsweek: Iran admits to providing Hamas with ‘skills’ to carry out attacks https://www.newsweek.com/iran-admits-providing-palestinian-fighters-skills-israel-attacks-hamas-gaza-1833795 Thomas Chatterton Williams tweet: https://x.com/thomaschattwill/status/1712147866427248784?s=20 The total blockade of Gaza announced by the Defence Minister of Israel, Yoav Gallant, October 9, 2023 https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/no-electricity-no-food-no-fuel-israels-defense-minister-orders-total-blockade-on-gaza/ar-AA1hUWWZ CNN: Mustafa Barghouti, Leader of Palestinian National Initiative on Israel in Gaza, Oct. 8, 2023 https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/10/07/mustafa-barghouti-palestinian-national-initiative-hamas-attack-israel.cnn Ron Paul speaks to House of Representatives in opposition to a bill condemning bombings of Israel, Dec. 5, 2001 - https://www.c-span.org/video/?167636-1/house-session

Al Sharpton is wrong about gun control. He’s right that it's a civil rights issue, but not in the way he claims. Gun control has historically been used to disarm minority groups, meanwhile gun ownership helped secure the freedom and civil rights of black Americans. #history #blackhistory

Texas' restrictions on internet porn went "far beyond the interest of protecting minors," a federal judge ruled this year. Adult content creator Aella discusses the effects of anti-porn laws. Watch the full replay of Aella's live conversation with Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe: youtube.com/watch?v=BsL1FgOVsXA&t=394s

"I think it really destroyed my brain. And I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn," singer Billie Eilish told Howard Stern in 2021. Sex researcher Aella is skeptical of Eilish's take. Watch the full replay of Aella's live conversation with Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe: youtube.com/watch?v=BsL1FgOVsXA&t=394s

Remy does a looting parody of Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do." Stop enabling thieves by owning stuff.

"The sexual revolution is the winner of the culture war. We finally found a way to have it all, and yet we're still not happy," Anna Khachiyan said at the recent sexual revolution debate hosted by @thefreepress and @TheFIREorg. Watch the full replay of Aella's live conversation with Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe: youtube.com/watch?v=BsL1FgOVsXA&t=394s

Tariffs are really just taxes on imported goods. Trump and Biden love them, even though 93% of tariffs are paid for by American consumers, not China.

Lawmakers find culprits for the recent uptick in theft—the victims. Parody of Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" written and performed by Remy. LYRICS I was on a walk so brisk Just minding my business Out with my walking stick Can't you see? Innocently… But I'm just human, oh it's true yes, I am just a man What else could one do seeing luggage in a minivan? I have no choice in the matter, do you not understand? I check it once, then I check it twice, ah! Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me… They don't want to steal whiskey But he must feed his family My newborn loves Pappy He's a boy, and he likes blue… How do you expect someone not to shatter all this glass? When he sees this while only carrying the 14 Max? Any chance you might step up to defend property rights? I check it once, and I check it twice, hmm Ooh, look what I always do Look what I always do Just look at what I like to Look at what I like to do

"We have made the difficult decision to block access to our site in Mississippi and Virginia, as we have also recently done in Utah," reads a June 30 statement from Pornhub, the world's second-most trafficked porn site and the thirteenth most trafficked site overall. Pornhub was reacting to the passage of age-verification laws passed in those three states. Similar laws have passed in Louisiana, Texas, Montana, and Arkansas, leading Politico to declare that "A Simple Law is Doing the Impossible. It's Making the Porn Industry Retreat." The industry is fighting back, however, and won a preliminary injunction against Texas' law. JoinReason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel or Facebook page as they discuss the anti-porn laws with sex worker and data scientist Aella. They'll also talk about the psychological literature examining online porn consumption, the privacy implications of age verification laws, and a recent debate Aella attended hosted by the Free Press and FIREabout the effects of "the sexual revolution" on American society. PornHub statement on new age verification laws, June 30, 2023: https://twitter.com/Pornhub/status/1674774396773318658 Reason: In Scathing Rulings, Federal Courts Block Arkansas and Texas Age Verification Laws, September 1, 2023: https://reason.com/2023/09/01/in-scathing-rulings-federal-courts-block-arkansas-and-texas-age-verification-laws/ Preliminary injunction in NetChoice v. Griffin (Arkansas social media law): https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GRIFFIN-NETCHOICE-GRANTED.pdf Preliminary injunction in Free Speech Coalition v. Colmenero (TX porn law): https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/gov.uscourts.txwd_.1172751222.36.0-1.pdf Politico: A Simple Law Is Doing the Impossible. It’s Making the Online Porn Industry Retreat: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/08/08/age-law-online-porn-00110148 Aella: Women prefer more violent porn - https://aella.substack.com/p/women-prefer-more-violent-porn-and U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee: U.S. Marriage rate 1900-2018 - https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/2020/4/marriage-rate-blog-test SimilarWeb: PornHub monthly traffic and rankings: https://www.similarweb.com/website/pornhub.com/#overview Skeptic: How Porn is Messing with Your Manhood: https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/how-porn-is-messing-with-your-manhood/

We don’t lose other Constitutional rights for using illicit substances, so why is the Second Amendment an exception? Don't prosecute Hunter Biden, and others, for possessing guns and drugs.

How to battle identity politics and defend liberal values of universalism, free speech, and open inquiry reason.com/video ________ My guest today is Johns Hopkins professor Yascha Mounk, the founder of the online magazine Persuasion and the author of the important new book The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time. The Identity Trap explains how identity politics and social justice discourse have come to dominate contemporary discussions of just about everything, analyzes their negative influence on society, and shows how to confront and defeat them in the name of liberal values of free expression and open inquiry. Yascha was a prime mover behind the 2020 open letter on "justice and open debate" in Harper's magazine and is one of the most powerful defenders of free speech and the marketplace of ideas at work today. This interview took place at the Reason Speakeasy, a live, unscripted monthly conversation held in New York City with outspoken defenders of free speech and heterodox thinking. Go here for information about upcoming events.

The FTC says Amazon Prime’s subscription fee makes customers feel like they’re not getting their money’s worth, but that doesn’t make it a monopoly.

Despite their popularity, food trucks at the National Mall are paying a hefty price to operate. https://reason.com/video/2023/10/04/d-c-s-food-truck-underworld/ _______________ Every year, over 25 million tourists flock to the iconic National Mall in Washington, D.C. Yet as they explore some of the nation's greatest museums and monuments, visitors often find themselves faced with limited dining options, which boil down to either pricey cafes at the Smithsonian museums or food trucks parked along the Mall. The food trucks have, unsurprisingly, become a favorite among tourists. "The diversity is incredible. The food is so well cooked. You could see they really poured their hearts into it. The prices are extraordinary. You can't beat it," Jason, a visitor from Massachusetts who bought a gyro from a food truck nearby, tells Reason. Yet to serve the hungry tourists at the Mall, D.C.'s food trucks have to pay a hefty price, since their operation is technically illegal. To serve their customers and make a living, food truck operators often have to park in illegal spots along the Mall, or stay parked in legal spots after their meters have expired. They are often fined up to $300 a day by the D.C. parking police. Food truck operators also face fierce competition for coveted parking spots. Vendors like Maged Naeem, who runs Chicken Friendly just outside the National Museum of American History, resort to parking dummy cars overnight to keep their prized spots, ultimately leading to more parking tickets. Meanwhile, the fines rack up. In 2022 alone, the city collected $467,000 in parking tickets along the Mall. This wasn't a problem until the COVID-19 pandemic. Before lockdown restrictions and work-from-home policies, the food truck business was booming in other parts of the district, particularly with the lunch crowd. "That wasn't only just good for the food truck owners, although it was great for them. It was good for the city as a whole. Right? Get more options for customers, tastier options, more awareness of different cultures and their cuisines, better choices for tourists. It was wonderful for everyone," explained attorney Justin Pearson, who directs the National Street Vending Initiative at the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm. The pandemic destroyed much of the food truck scene in the district. While trucks can still legally operate in other areas of D.C., foot traffic has dropped significantly, driving many food truck owners to close shop, Pearson added. "The pandemic obviously closed all of the office buildings. That lunchtime business went away overnight virtually," Doug Povich, owner of the Red Hook Lobster Pound food truck, which went out of business in 2020, tells Reason. "Trucks then had to find other places to vend." Now, the only spot in D.C. that continues to have reliable lunchtime foot traffic is the National Mall. The challenge for the food trucks, however, arises from the division of authority in the area: The roads where the food trucks park fall under the jurisdiction of the district, while the sidewalks where the transactions take place are overseen by the National Park Service. The D.C. government therefore lacks jurisdiction to create legal parking spots for the trucks along the sidewalk. Neither the National Parks Service nor the district is willing to assume enforcement responsibilities, meaning the trucks technically remain illegally parked. "There's inter-bureaucracy apathy, I guess. Nobody wants to be in charge of actually taking care of the trucks down there," Patrick Rathbone, owner of the Big Cheese Truck, tells Reason. Until the district and the National Parks Service come to an agreement on operating permits, food truck operators will remain stuck in the middle, continuing to pay large fines as they serve the hungry lunch crowds at D.C.'s National Mall. Produced by Justin Zuckerman; Audio Production by Ian Keyser; Editorial Support by Katarina Hall Music: "Prelude Carmen" by Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra via Artlist; "Life's Journey Begins" by idokay via Artlist; "Thoughts" by ANBR via Artlist; "Cherubinos Aria Voi che sapete" by Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra via Artlist; "Little Things" by ANBR via Artlist

Most countries only get rich when they have lots of power, says Bjorn Lomborg, and typically right now that’s fossil fuel.

Pentagon officials plan to keep spending on Ukraine even if there's a government shutdown. Reason's Nick Gillespie says that's "an amazing admission by the deep state."

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump dismissed Sweden's anti-lockdown approach to COVID when he tweeted "Despite reports to the contrary, Sweden is paying heavily for its decision not to lockdown." The Cato Institute's Johan Norberg reacts. Watch the full replay of Norberg's conversation with Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe: youtube.com/watch?v=wC5AG7JDUfY

"Sweden is the outlier," says Johan Norberg, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Watch the full replay of Norberg's conversation with Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe: youtube.com/watch?v=wC5AG7JDUfY

If socialists want to imitate Sweden, they need to reform Social Security, privatize product markets, abolish occupational licensing, reduce corporate taxes, abolish property taxes, and implement a national school voucher system.

"We have been socialists in Sweden and we have been successful, but never at the same time," says Swedish historian Johan Norberg. Watch the full replay of Norberg's conversation with Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe: youtube.com/watch?v=wC5AG7JDUfY

Johan Norberg says Bernie Sanders’ socialism is a pipe dream and shares lessons Sweden learned trying to implement it.

The U.S. government intentionally poisoned Americans during prohibition and is estimated to have killed more than 10,000 people.

The Swedish government's decision to forgo lockdowns as most of Europe, Asia, and North America's political leaders forcibly closed businesses and schools in the early days of the pandemic became one of the most controversial COVID policies of 2020. The New York Times in April 2020 designated Sweden "the world's cautionary tale," and President Donald Trump proclaimed that "Sweden is paying heavily for its decision not to lockdown" as an early wave of COVID deaths hit Sweden harder than its Nordic neighbors. But to Swedish officials, "it looked like it was other countries that were engaging in a dangerous experiment," writes Cato Institute senior fellow Johan Norberg in a policy paper entitled "Sweden during the pandemic: Pariah or paragon?" The attacks on Sweden's laissez-faire approach were short-sighted, says Norberg. Today, Sweden's COVID-19 death rate is not an outlier, and its excess death rate from 2020 to the present is the lowest in Europe. In a retrospective report on the country's pandemic response, Sweden's public health officials say that they should have more aggressively protected senior citizens and tested and quarantined travelers from COVID hotspots in those early days, but consider the focus on public health recommendations that people can "follow voluntarily" over coercive lockdowns was "fundamentally correct." Norberg also points out that Sweden avoided the economic contraction that its neighboring countries suffered, as well as the learning loss experienced in countries that closed schools for months or even years. JoinReason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe for an in-depth discussion with Norberg about the lessons to draw from Sweden's pandemic policies this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel or on Facebook. Sources referenced in this conversation: Johan Norberg: Sweden during the pandemic https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/sweden-during-pandemic Trump: Sweden is “paying heavily” for not locking down - April 30, 2020 https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1255825648448348161 NYT: Sweden has become the world’s cautionary tale - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/sweden-economy-coronavirus.html Sweden’s Corona Commission: https://coronakommissionen.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/summary_20220225.pdf Imperial College report on COVID-19 mitigation: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/mrc-gida/2020-03-26-COVID19-Report-12.pdf Trump on Sweden, White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, April 7, 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpaaOXZbKXY Bernie Sanders: U.S. should look more like Scandanavia, May 3, 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz0u2FH5Bnk Anders Tegnell talks on herd immunity on BBC HARDtalk, May 19, 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biqq34aUJcQ

Rescheduling cannabis means it’s still federally illegal, but if politicians really want to end the drug war, deschedule the plant entirely.

Brightline is betting that it can run a commercially viable passenger rail service without massive federal subsidies. Full text and links: https://reason.com/video/2023/09/20/how-florida-beat-california-to-high-speed-rail/ --- In 19th century America, trains symbolized modernity. Passenger rail connected the east and west coasts and helped settle the frontier. By 1916, rail accounted for 98 percent of intercity travel. As it became easier to drive or fly, passenger rail use plummeted. In 1971, the government created Amtrak, which survives on federal subsidies. And most recently the Biden administration gave Amtrak $66 billion in federal subsidies as part of the federal infrastructure bill. But in Florida, Brightline is showing that it's still possible to run a viable, privately operated passenger rail line under certain conditions. The company is starting service from Miami to Orlando on September 22. Not only is Brightline the first privately funded intercity rail line in the U.S., but it's also the fastest train in the country outside of the northeast corridor. Topping out at 125 mph in Florida, it will travel from Miami to Orlando in about three hours. For comparison, the Amtrak in the area takes about six and a half hours to complete that same trip. Mike Reininger, CEO of Brightline, toldReason that passenger rail makes commercial sense under specific conditions, such as the case in Florida, where it connects two populous, tourist-friendly cities that are about 250 miles apart. At that distance, Reininger says, "It is too far to drive and too short to fly. You can approximate the time of flying significantly, improve the time of driving, and you can offer it at a price point that makes it an economic proposition." There has been one other ambitious effort to build high-speed rail in the U.S.—in California. But that project turned into something so "foolish" that it's "almost a crime," according to Quentin L. Kopp, the former state senator who was crucial in rallying support for a $10 billion bond measure to build high-speed rail in California. He became a fierce opponent of the project when it ran out of money and the agency in charge, he says, broke its promises to voters. The 520-mile railway between San Francisco and Los Angeles was supposed to be completed by 2020. But after fifteen years of construction, they've only laid track for a 170-mile stretch in the Central Valley. The project, which has received more than $20 billion in state and federal subsidies, is now projected to cost over $128 billion. Following on its success in Florida, Brightline is also starting to develop a high-speed rail line out west—connecting Las Vegas to Los Angeles. The 218-mile line will have just a handful of stops and plans to reach speeds over 186 mph. But the company is pursuing about $3 billion worth in federal subsidies to complete the project, or about a third of the total estimated cost. Though not even close to the amount of money California needs to finish its project, Robert Poole, the director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation, is "skeptical" once federal money gets involved at all in large infrastructure projects. "It becomes far less of a business venture. And much more of this attitude that we can do grand things because we don't have to worry about what it costs," says Poole. But Brightline's Florida project remains a true test of whether there are narrow cases in which American travelers value passenger rail enough to pay for it with their own money. Photo Credits: akg-images / Paul Almasy/Newscom; Chris Kleponis - CNP/Newscom; Ron Sachs - CNP/Newscom; DPST/Newscom; Everett Collection/Newscom; Everett Collection/Newscom; Everett Collection/Newscom; National Motor Museum / Heritage Images/Newscom; Gary Reyes/TNS/Newscom; Gary Reyes/TNS/Newscom; Gary Reyes/TNS/Newscom; Underwood Archives/Universal Images Group/Newscom; Underwood Archives/Universal Images Group/Newscom; Underwood Archives/UIG / Universal Images Group/Newscom; Darryl Heikes/UPI/Newscom