SMART. VERY SMART. Ben Carson Calls Out Zoning Regulations for Driving Up Housing Costs.

Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), wants to pare back Obama-era housing regulations that he says do not do enough to address the real driver of housing costs: zoning regulations.

On Monday, Carson announced that he was looking to revise the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which sought to combat housing segregation by requiring local governments to perform extensive (and expensive) reviews on how concentrated their neighborhoods were along class and racial lines, and then to develop action plans to create more “balanced and integrated living patterns.” Local governments that failed to fulfill either requirement would be cut off from a number of federal housing grant programs.

Carson said on Monday that he wants to replace the 2015 AFFH with new rules that focus on increasing the overall supply of housing.

“I want to encourage the development of mixed-income multifamily dwellings all over the place,” Carson told The Wall Street Journal, saying, “I would incentivize people who really would like to get a nice juicy government grant” to reform their zoning codes.

According to the Journal, Carson specifically called out Los Angeles for its strict single-family zoning rules that limit the number of housing units that can be built in the city. “Of course you’re going to have skyrocketing prices that no one can afford,” he said.

It’s as if increasing supply to meet demand might lower prices or something.

VOX: Elizabeth Warren has a plan to save capitalism.

From what, having to bail out socialists?

Related: Payment seen unlikely on $1.1 billion in maturing Venezuela bonds.

NO MATTER THE REASON, IT’S A GOOD THING: NATO’s East Is Rearming, But It’s Because of Putin, Not Trump.

The jump in acquisitions behind the former Iron Curtain of aircraft, ships and armored vehicles began when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, well before Trump’s 2016 election victory, according to analysts including Tomas Valasek, director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels. While the median defense expenditure of NATO members is 1.36 percent of gross domestic product, below the alliance’s requirement of 2 percent, eastern members comprise seven of the 13 members that are paying above that level.

“Countries on NATO’s eastern border do not need Donald Trump to boost defense spending,” Valasek said. “They decided this long before he came to power. The spending boost was because of a president, but it was Vladimir Putin, not the U.S. President.”

Constant overflights by Russian aircraft into NATO airspace, cyberattacks on government and military installations, wargames on the borders of the Baltic states and accusations that Russia was behind a failed coup in newest member Montenegro have put NATO’s eastern quadrant on alert for what it says is an increasingly expansionist Russia. Of the 15 members exceeding the bloc’s guideline that 20 percent of total defense spending should go to equipment, six are from eastern Europe.

I’m old enough to remember when Donald Rumsfeld was mocked for saying the eastern NATO countries of “new Europe” were taking defense more seriously than the traditional western NATO allies.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: US-led coalition fight against ISIS in Syria, Iraq ‘far from over.’

“There is still a lot of work to be done both militarily and on civilian stabilization efforts in both countries,” said Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition fight against ISIS. “Make no mistake — the coalition is not talking victory or taking our foot off the gas in working with our partners.”

Ryan said that partner forces are working to stabilize areas in Iraq and Syria where ISIS has been driven out, including rebuilding detention centers and training new guards. In some areas like Manbij in northern Syria, electricity is being restored and some children are going to school for the first time in five years, he said.

In other areas, the fighting continues. In eastern Syria, the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are preparing for an assault on the ISIS stronghold of Hajin, a Euphrates River Valley town.

There, he said, the SDF has set up checkpoints to vet fleeing civilians and weed out ISIS fighters trying to escape. Some have been captured, he said.

It’s certainly no time to go all wobbly, but the ISIS threat might have been eliminated already with the initial American response hadn’t been to ignore it, and then dismiss them as the “jayvee.”

TONI AIRAKSINEN: Prof Claims ‘Responsible Fatherhood’ Reinforces ‘Patriarchy.’ “Giving poor dads a leg up supports ‘hegemonic masculinity’.”

Responsible fatherhood might reinforce the patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity, if that’s what you want to call it. But it is also proven to reduce poverty, criminality, and multigenerational social pathologies. So there’s that.

MINE IS THE SAME:  The Inner Voice.

AND IT’S PROBABLY NOT ALONE:  U.S. Says Small Russian Satellite A Space Weapon .

WE NEED A COLUMN ON HOW TO CURE NEW YORK TIMES PRIVILEGE:  Not a joke: The New York Times has an advice column about how to ‘cure’ white skin privilege.

THE MIERDAS TOUCH OF THE LEFT:  San Francisco wheels out its new ‘poop patrol’.

THEY HATE US, THEY REALLY HATE US:  Let the Bad Times Roll.

WELL, ABOUT TIME:  Masterpiece Cakeshop Sues Colorado And Gov Hickenlooper Citing Religious Discrimination.

A DEMOCRAT? WOULD ANYONE NOTICE IF SHE WERE? Is Nancy Pelosi Losing Her Mind?

WHY NOT? THEY THINK LOTS OF CRAZY THINGS: Dems Think Trump Can Make Racism Just Disappear.

GET YOUR Space Force T-Shirt Right Here.

COLLUSION: The Weekly Standard’s Ties To Fusion GPS.

NOW OUT: Knoxville lawyer Michael J. Stanuszek’s first book: Don’t Get Fat, Kids! 100 Quips about Life from a Middle-Aged Husband and Father.

RATHER A LOT, REALLY: Guess how many senior FBI officials involved in Hillary email probe have been fired or resigned since 2017.

IT’S COMPLETELY UNPRECEDENTED FOR TRUMP TO PULL A CLEARANCE: Or maybe not.

A Trump-supporting Pentagon analyst was stripped of his security clearance by Obama-appointed officials after he complained of questionable government contracts to Stefan Halper, the FBI informant who spied on the Trump presidential campaign.

Adam Lovinger, a 12-year strategist in the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, complained to his bosses about Halper contracts in the fall of 2016, his attorney, Sean M. Bigley, told The Washington Times.

On May 1, 2017, his superiors yanked his security clearance and relegated him to clerical chores.

Read the whole thing. There are some — familiar names.