Enough?
Plus: Law enforcement cracks down on protesters, CDC goes after Botox, FTC eliminates noncompetes, and more...
Cash infusion still not enough: Despite the $60 billion in Ukraine aid that was just authorized by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden, U.S. government officials are quietly voicing their skepticism that this chunk of change will be effective at helping Ukraine beat Russia.
"Russia maintains a manpower and weapons advantage, and it would take a lot to reverse months and years of territorial losses," reported Politico. It's not just a question of winning or losing, in other words, but also whether Ukraine is able to seize back the parts of its territory that Russia had seized in years prior, like Crimea, or Donbas, which Russia seized at the start of the war in 2022. "There's lots of debate about what a winning endgame for Ukraine looks like at this point," a senior Democratic staffer in the Senate told Politico.
Meanwhile, lots of White House staffers claim that the aid package being stalled for as long as it was has resulted in massive Russian gains that will be even harder for Ukraine to make up for. "It's going to take some time for us to dig out of the hole that was created by six months of delay," said Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser.
But massive pressure was reportedly exerted by the White House in order to ensure the aid bill's passage. Per a Washington Post report, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.) was summoned to the Oval Office in late February—along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.)—under the guise of discussing how to avoid a government shutdown. The meeting was actually "a plan to pressure Johnson to push through a Ukraine aid package that was deeply dividing House Republicans," per the Post.
The tradeoffs are awful no matter how you slice it. The White House, and the bipartisan consensus in favor of endlessly depleting America's coffers to pay for wars elsewhere, was able to get its way. But even if you were gunning for the right-wing flank of the GOP that was looking to cut foreign aid, it's also worth contending with the real tradeoffs that would come there, in terms of Ukraine struggling to defend itself from Russia's unjust invasion. European allies have come to its aid, yes, but it's an open question as to whether any of this will be enough.
Tin soldiers and Abbott's coming: At the University of Texas at Austin, law enforcement appears to be responding quite aggressively and indiscriminately to anti-Israel/pro-Palestine student protesters. They have arrested more than 50 people (including a photojournalist) and seemingly went after those doing nothing more than peacefully protesting.
It's important to me to be able to call balls and strikes, and, look: Readers of Roundup know that I think the Columbia student protesters are crazy and the tent encampment should not be allowed on private property but I'm simultaneously not a huge fan of hundreds of Texas state troopers roughing up students for exercising their speech rights.
Plus, it sure seems like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is more interested in making a show out of this crackdown than respecting rights and avoiding First Amendment lawsuits. In his own words: "Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses. These protesters belong in jail. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled."
But you cannot arrest people for…"hate-filled, antisemitic" speech, all of which is ugly but totally legal.
According to Gov. Abbott's own post, he is violating the First Amendment. A governor can't lawfully arrest people for protesting or for "hate speech." If he's arresting them for other reasons, then he should say so. If he's arresting them for their speech, then he's violating the… https://t.co/Q5aRKR5qkn
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 25, 2024
The good news is that, as Austinite/The Diff writer Byrne Hobart reports, the protests have been broadly effective:
Following today's protests at UT, the city of Austin has announced a complete withdrawal of all of its ground forces from Gaza, and while airstrikes will continue they will be restricted to retaliatory actions exclusively on military targets.
— Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart) April 25, 2024
Scenes from New York: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, coupled with the Food and Drug Administration, are investigating numerous reports of fake Botox in circulation. The Cut is, naturally, all over this. (And don't even come complaining to me that you don't know why this is a Scene from New York. Of course it's a Scene from New York!)
QUICK HITS
- Harvey Weinstein's felony sex crime conviction was just overturned: "In a 4-3 decision, the New York Court of Appeals found that the trial judge who presided over Mr. Weinstein's case had made a crucial mistake, allowing prosecutors to call as witnesses a series of women who said Mr. Weinstein had assaulted them—but whose accusations were not part of the charges against him," reports The New York Times.
- Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission banned certain types of noncompete clauses. Good commentary on this from Alex Tabarrok over at Marginal Revolution.
- Lower than expected earnings report for Meta.
- Venice starts charging tourists fees for their visits.
- Except the free market was not "created"—something the Heritage folks should know.
The conservative movement must stop defending free markets (though it is a good) and start defending the American family for which the free market was created to serve.
— Wesley Coopersmith (@WesleyCoop) April 23, 2024
- What is Zach hiding with his crypto? JUST KIDDING, always read my Just Asking Questions cohost/Reason senior producer/anti-CBDC zealot on freedom money:
The founders of Samourai Wallet have been indicted for "conspiracy to commit money laundering." You might wonder why it's "conspiracy to commit" as opposed to just "money laundering."
It's because what they did was provide a privacy tool that some people could use for money…
— Zach Weissmueller (@TheAbridgedZach) April 24, 2024
- The incredible resurrection of America's once (and future?) disinformation czar Nina Jankowicz:
Jankowicz, you may remember, wrote a book about Russian disinformation. The only problem: she only had 7 interview sources, and 2 of them, it turns out, were Russian operatives. pic.twitter.com/SMDxPNBY49
— Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97) April 24, 2024
