Merry Christmas From Wall Street -- And Thanks To Readers

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Merry Christmas From Wall Street -- And Thanks To Readers

  • The most famous Christmas display in New York City is in Rockefeller Center, but they also put on a good show down on Wall Street, near where my office is located.

  • You may also know that the corner of Wall and Broad Streets is the very location where George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States in 1789.

  • It’s not just the Stock Exchange that was founded on Wall Street, but also the federal government of the United States. Don’t let the symbolism of that get lost on you.

  • It’s been a great year for this blog. We have broken 1 million page views (currently 1.21 million and counting) for the first time, an increase of some 60% over last year. Thanks to all readers for visiting, and especially to those who have added their thoughtful comments to the discussion. . . .

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Has The U.S. Government Massively Deceived The Public About Afghanistan?

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Whither Impeachment?

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  • On Wednesday evening, the House voted two Articles of Impeachment against President Trump. The first alleges “abuse of power,” and the second claims “obstruction of Congress.” Neither is a crime.

  • So we now know the answer to the question posed in the title of my post of November 13, “The Trump Impeachment: What Is The Crime?” The answer is that we’re not even pretending that there is a crime. . . .

  • What next? If your answer is, on to the trial in the Senate, you are not fully thinking through all the posturings and maneuverings that our politicians are capable of. Just because the odds that President Trump will be removed from office might be zero, that doesn’t mean that there is only one procedural route to get to that final result.

  • The posturings and maneuverings began yesterday, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to transmit the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, and indicated that she was seeking to exact some procedural concessions from that body before sending the Articles over.

  • In other words, we demand that the Republicans who control the Senate give us a forum to continue playing our talking points for another few days or weeks. Well, two can play this game. . . .

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Who Is Winning The Climate Wars? (2)

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Who Is Winning The Climate Wars? (2)

  • A few weeks ago (November 22), in a post titled “Who Is Winning The Climate Wars?”, I undertook to begin documenting the ever-growing chasm between the unhinged rhetoric of climate campaigners and the reality out there in the world.

  • You probably know that the UN held its annual big climate conference this year in Madrid during the first two weeks of December. That event provided the occasion for many campaigners to ramp up the volume of their claims, trying once again to stampede government representatives into agreeing to impoverish their people.

  • Let’s collect a few data points over the past several weeks. . . .

  • Bottom line: It’s not just uber hypocrites like Mike Bloomberg and his four private jets. The fact is that outside of some wildly guilty European countries and the loons of the U.S. Democratic Party far left, fewer and fewer people pay any attention whatsoever to the absurd climate apocalypse rhetoric. . . .

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President Trump Was Absolutely Right To Ask Ukraine To Investigate The Bidens

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  • As of today, it appears that the House of Representatives is moving toward voting Articles of Impeachment against President Trump as early as next week.

  • Although the version of the Articles currently in circulation may change somewhat before the voting, all indications are that what we’re now looking at is substantially what they intend to go with. Really?? It looks like most everything they were previously talking about that sounded remotely serious is gone!

  • The “abuse of power” being referred to here consists entirely of dealings with the country of Ukraine occurring during the summer of 2019 . . .

  • Really then, this has to be about number (2), asking Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden. And the question is, is there anything wrong with that? My answer is, absolutely not. In fact, I’ll go farther: Trump would be completely remiss in his obligations to the American people to fail to ask Ukraine to find out what the hell was going on with Joe and Hunter Biden in Ukraine. . . .

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One Of The Stupidest Litigations In The Country Dies With A Whimper

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One Of The Stupidest Litigations In The Country Dies With A Whimper

  • One of my recurring missions is the effort to assist the readership in identifying the stupidest litigation that has been brought anywhere in this big country. Mostly this effort has resulted in nominating for the title cases that in some way involve issues of “climate change” or, in other words, the idea that if we only sue the right bad guy for enough money we can improve the weather.

  • A problem with these types of cases is that, as stupid as they are, they tend to kick around the courts for years without much happening. Often, the courts just don’t know what to do with them.

  • So it’s actually highly unusual when one of these litigations that I have put in the “stupidest” category proceeds to a full trial on the merits, complete with live witnesses testifying for weeks on end in a courtroom in front of a judge. However, that just happened in a case that I covered in an October 22 post titled “A Serious Contender For Stupidest Litigation In The Country Goes To Trial.”

  • This was the case brought by the New York Attorney General against Exxon, claiming that “Exxon knew” about the risks of climate change and its own role in same, and hid those risks from the public. That certainly sounds nefarious. Here is a picture of demonstrators outside the courthouse on the day of the opening statements.

  • Justice Ostrager makes short work of the AG’s case. I would say that he does it in much more moderate and measured tones than I would have used — but then, a New York State court judge has good reason not to gratuitously offend the AG when ruling against her. I’ll give you a few choice quotes. . . .

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