Saudi Arabia has taken a small step towards recognizing women's rights by allowing them to vote and run for office.

Since the country is actually ruled by the king, the elected officials, no matter who votes for them, don't get to decide much. Still, they could provide practice for a future democracy.

The US crackdown on sex workers is driven by the state's desire to steal their money.

There is a general pattern in the US of governments using oppressive measures to take people's money. The Ferguson pattern of repeatedly fining and jailing poor people is one example. "Forfeiture" is another. The root cause is that we don't tax rich people enough, so governments are desperate to get money from somewhere or other.

The NLRB ruled that some subcontracted temporary workers should be considered employees of the real employer, and have the right to unionize.

The use of subcontracting is largely an excuse to pay and treat workers worse. It's possible that this decision could reduce that harm.

It appears that the US military is distorting intelligence about PISSI to give a false impression of success in fighting it.

The US military has made public claims about readiness to attack PISSI which I was skeptical about. The attack on Mosul, announced months ago, has not taken place.

Underestimating the enemy is a recipe for defeat.

US beekeepers say that the EPA's pollinator protection plan is passing the buck to states that fail to resist the pesticide companies.