Typical California?

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/technology/california-privacy-agency-ccpa-gdpr.html

How California Is Building the Nation’s First Privacy Police

A new state agency has a $10 million budget to regulate Google, Facebook and others. But first it needs to be created.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/putin-dictator-trap-russia-ukraine/627064/

Vladimir Putin Has Fallen Into the Dictator Trap

In the span of a couple of weeks, Vladimir Putin—a man recently described by Donald Trump as a strategic “genius”—managed to revitalize NATO, unify a splintered West, turn Ukraine’s little-known president into a global hero, wreck Russia’s economy, and solidify his legacy as a murderous war criminal.

How did he miscalculate so badly?

To answer that question, you have to understand the power and information ecosystems around dictators. I’ve studied and interviewed despots across the globe for more than a decade. In my research, I’ve persistently encountered a stubborn myth—of the savvy strongman, the rational, calculating despot who can play the long game because he (and it’s typically a he) doesn’t have to worry about pesky polls or angry voters. Our elected leaders, this view suggests, are no match for the tyrant who gazes into the next decade rather than fretting about next year’s election.

Reality doesn’t conform to that rosy theory.

(Related)

https://apnews.com/article/ussia-ukraine-war-us-view-of-putin-1271f76008b3e639df6ff21e3644e339

US view of Putin: Angry, frustrated, likely to escalate war

… One independent Russian political analyst, Kirill Rogov, posted on his Telegram account that the war is “lost” and an “epic failure.”

“The mistake was the notion that the West was unwilling to resist aggression, that it was lethargic, greedy and divided,” Rogov wrote. “The idea that the Russian economy is self-sufficient and secure was a mistake. The mistake was the idea of the quality of the Russian army. And the main mistake was the idea that Ukraine is a failed state, and Ukrainians are not a nation.

“Four mistakes in making one decision is a lot,” he said.