June 02, 2020

Surely Minneapolis, Of All Places, Must Have Cured Racism By Now

June 02, 2020/ Francis Menton

Progressives and Democrats are the people who never tire of accusing their political adversaries of racism, or maybe even of “white supremacism.” Elect us, the message is, and we will do away with these evils for good.

If that proposition were valid, then clearly Minneapolis would be in the forefront of those places that have long since done away with racism. Among bastions of woke progressivism in this country, it is almost impossible to top Minneapolis.
The place is currently run from top to bottom and at all levels of government by representatives of the far left wing of the Democratic Party; and that has been true for as far back as human memory stretches. Consider: . . .

May 30, 2020

Virginia Is Deluding Itself About Green Energy

May 30, 2020/ Francis Menton

A few days ago I had a post about how tightening “green” energy regulations in Europe are gradually strangling sectors like the automobile and chemical industries. The post was titled “Europe Is Firmly Committed To Economic Suicide.”
Here in the U.S., we have a large coterie of “blue” states that are hungering to follow the EU economic model — California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and others.
A latecomer to this party is Virginia.
In Virginia, you may be aware that in 2018, for the first time in a generation, the Democrats took control of both houses of the legislature. They wasted no time in passing a big chunk of the progressive agenda en masse, in the form of over a thousand bills that had been blocked by their adversaries for decades. The new laws cover everything from abortion to guns to the minimum wage to tax increases, and plenty more.
Of course, at the top of the agenda, as it always seems to be, was “climate change.” To slay this particular dragon, Virginia now has the newly-enacted Virginia Clean Economy Act, or VCEA.

May 27, 2020

May 27, 2020/ Francis Menton

Almost certainly, you have heard of Greta Thunberg. Indeed, you undoubtedly know a lot about her.
She is the Swedish teenager who for more than a decade has suffered from various mental illnesses, including depression, Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and even something called “selective mutism.”
Apparently, in between bouts of mental illness, at some point she became interested in the issue of climate change. In late December 2018, at the age of 15, Greta suddenly sprang on the world stage, when she got invited to speak at a UN climate conference in New York. That’s when we first got to see her trademark anger — fury, even — about what she perceived to be the crisis of the climate.
In 2019 she spent the year playing hooky from school and leading climate “strikes” and demonstrations wherever she could get an audience.
On September 23, 2019 she was back at the UN in New York giving a barn-burning speech letting everyone know how deeply furious she is that anyone is enjoying their life. . . .
Then there’s Naomi Seibt. . . .

May 23, 2020

May 23, 2020/ Francis Menton

In various posts over the years, I have argued that the long-term economic prospects for the likes of China and Russia are not very good. Among other reasons, the dictator-for-life governance model leads to inherent instability that undermines incentives for investment and growth. And then there’s the inevitability of state-directed capital allocation leading to massive investment in boondoggle projects that fail spectacularly. . . .
Therefore, Europe should have a huge leg up on these successors to Stalin and Mao. After all, the European countries basically have market economies, although overlain with bloated and unaccountable regulatory bureaucracies. They have a solid base of creative entrepreneurship. Really, how badly could they go wrong?
But the big problem for Europe is that most of their governments are firmly committed to economic suicide. . . .

May 20, 2020

May 20, 2020/ Francis Menton

When a collection of bad guys pulls off a big heist, or a murder, or another important crime, one of the critical problems they face is co-ordinating the cover story.
The cops may arrest one or more of them, and then question each suspect separately. Any cover stories must be completely consistent if they are to succeed. Inconsistencies in the cover story, even slight ones, will prompt focused questioning that could cause the whole house of cards to collapse.
But co-ordinating cover stories is not so easy. . . .
Now, assume you are attempting to pull off the most egregious abuse of government power in American political history. There must be a better way than Manafort’s to co-ordinate cover stories. Which brings me back to yesterday’s post comparing Obamagate to Watergate, and to the section of that post relating to the personal involvement of the President. . . .

May 19, 2020

May 19, 2020/ Francis Menton

The word “Obamagate” has recently become ubiquitous in the news, referring to spying by Obama administration officials on the campaign and then the transition and administration of President Trump.
The use of the “gate” suffix of course hearkens back to the scandal known as Watergate, the affair that drove President Nixon from office in 1974. Like Obamagate, the Watergate scandal was also about spying by those in power on opposition political actors.
Because of the close similarity of subject matter, it is appropriate to compare the facts of the two scandals.