More Reasons For Cautious Optimism About The Demise Of The Green Energy Fantasy

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  • My post on Saturday noted one big reason for optimism that the green energy fantasy is coming to the end of its run: the first country, Germany, has apparently begun to hit the green energy “wall.”

  • Although Germany has never consistently reached even 50% of its electricity production from wind and solar, its ability to continue its green energy dreams has stalled: its electricity prices have soared, its manufacturing sector has been seriously undermined, its economy is in recession, and recently its green-promoting government has fallen. Its failed example now stands for others to see and avoid.

  • And as I look around at developments since the election, I see a number of other reasons to reinforce my cautious optimism.

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Cautious Optimism On The Demise Of The Green Energy Fantasy

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Cautious Optimism On The Demise Of The Green Energy Fantasy

  • It has been obvious now for many years to the numerate that the fantasy future powered by wind and sun is not going to happen. Sooner or later, reality will inevitably intrude.

  • And yet, the fantasy has gone on for far longer than I ever would have thought possible. Hundreds of billions of dollars of government largesse have been a big part of the reason, going not just to green energy developers but also to academic charlatans and environmental NGOs to fan the flames of climate alarm.

  • It was three years ago, in December 2021, that I asked the question, “Which Country Or U.S. State Will Be The First To Hit The Green Energy Wall?”

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Anti-Money Laundering Enforcement: What Happened To Due Process Of Law?

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Solving The MTA's Fare Evasion Problem

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Solving The MTA's Fare Evasion Problem

  • This may be a problem that readers outside of New York don’t care much about, but it is symptomatic of important issues in our society.

  • The MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) is the New York State (not City) agency that runs our transit system — subways, buses, and commuter rail lines. To ride the subways and buses, you are supposed to pay the fare on entering the subway system or boarding the bus. The MTA has long had a problem with customers who don’t pay the fare, either evading the turnstiles in the subway or just boarding the bus without paying. During the Covid period, the MTA for some time waived payment of the fares on buses (I never understood why); and then after Covid many people did not resume paying, and the fare evasion rates soared.

  • Over the years since the pandemic, there have been regular news reports about the increase in fare evasion. Most recently, in August of this year, the MTA released the latest data to the news media, and this information was then widely reported in many outlets. The short version is that this is no longer a small problem.

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Anti-Money Laundering Enforcement And De-Banking

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  • In a government full of nasty, obnoxious and extra-legal regulatory initiatives to harass the people, the effort to regulate “money laundering” out of existence has to rank at the top.

  • The basic idea is for the government to require all banks to become involuntary deputies of law enforcement to spy on their customers behind their backs, so that the bureaucrats can gain access to detailed information on what every single person is doing all the time. And thus will all criminality be stomped out!

  • In the real world, what anti-money laundering (AML) regulation means is that the government gains vast information on the innocent citizenry. This information in almost all cases has nothing to do with criminality and instead finds its principal use in hobbling and harassing the political opponents of the régime.

  • Meanwhile, the real crooks have plenty of ways (cash, Bitcoin, ten other forms of crypto, gold, MoneyGram, etc., etc.) to continue business as usual.

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How The Régime Treats Is Enemies, And Its Friends

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  • Throughout my life, no matter who has been in charge of federal or state prosecutions, there have been voices alleging some level of politicization of the law enforcement process. Mostly, those allegations have been about improper use of government resources to protect those in power, who should be relying on their own private lawyers when their own conduct is at issue.

  • But then there is the subject of use of the government’s law enforcement and regulatory authority to harass, disable and convict political opponents of the régime. Prior to the Trump Derangement Syndrome era, those sorts of abuses had been notably rare during my lifetime.

  • But there is nothing remotely comparable in our history to the diversion of law enforcement resources during the past four years toward the effort to take down the political opponents of the régime.

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