Cautious Optimism For Likely Future Mayor Eric Adams

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  • In the 2019 off-year election here in New York City, there was almost no reason to bother to vote. There were no elections on the ballot for any significant political office, whether federal, state, or local. But they took the occasion to put to the voters five propositions to amend the New York City Charter. One of those propositions provided for replacement of then-current voting procedures with a complicated “ranked choice voting” (RCV) system. Nobody can remember what the other four Charter amendment propositions were about. (Go here if you are curious.)

  • Throughout New York City in the recent election, voters had to contend with multiple races with five or ten or even more candidates running. In my own district, besides the race for Mayor, there was a race for City Comptroller, one for Manhattan District Attorney, and another one for City Councilman. All had large fields for voters to learn about and then rank.

  • The newly-proposed system in 2019 seemed overly complicated to me, and I didn’t see what was wrong with the occasional runoff. But RCV was pitched as a form of “instant runoff.” It won with about a 3-1 majority.

  • Now we have just had our first experience with the new system.

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A Few Thoughts For Independence Day Weekend

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  • What is the most important defining characteristic of today’s progressive left movement? My answer to that question would be, hatred of America and everything it stands for.

  • The progressive looks at today’s United States, and all he can see are flaws. And he thinks he has a vision that can, through the magic powers of government coercion, fix all those flaws in short order.

  • Ask college-age kids what they dislike most about America, and the answer you are likely to get is “capitalism.”

  • But what is “capitalism”? The funny thing is that it’s not an “ism” at all.

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Justice In This Country Is Not Dispensed Impartially Between Democrats And Republicans

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  • Back in February 2020 I had a post asking the question whether justice in this country is “dispensed impartially” as between Democrats and Republicans, at least in cases involving significant political issues.

  • The post was inspired by a letter that had been written on February 11 by then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on the occasion of the sentencing of Roger Stone. Line Justice Department prosecutors had recommended a (wildly excessive) sentence of 7 to 9 years for Stone (for process crimes related to the Congressional investigation of the Russia collusion hoax), but top (political) Justice officials had just withdrawn that recommendation and urged a much lighter sentence (in accordance with normal guidelines).

  • That prompted Schumer to claim “improper political interference” in the prosecution and to assert that “[t]he American people must have confidence that justice in this country is dispensed impartially..” (As it turned out, shortly after my post Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison; his sentence was then commuted by President Trump in December 2020.)

  • But my post used the occasion of the Stone controversy to compile a list of significant flimsy politicized prosecutions of Republicans by Democratic prosecutors, each in situations with the potential to swing control of some public office or legislative body to the Democrats. . . .

  • Which brings me to the events of the past few days in the arena of politicization of the criminal prosecution system and the courts to the advantage of Democrats. I’ll discuss three:

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If a Person Can Be Trans-Gender, Why Not Trans-Race?

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  • On June 28, Not the Bee shared this article about Oli London. London is a white British person who announced coming out as gender non-binary (using the pronoun: “they”) and also as “trans-Korean.”

  • London made this announcement after undergoing 18 plastic surgeries to physically alter their face to look Korean. The physical appearance, with the aid of modern medicine, had been altered to reflect their true underlying identity.

  • The reckoning has arrived: For years we’ve been saying that if you feel like you were “born in the wrong body” then there are medical and surgical solutions to help you “become” who you are supposed to be.

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Attempting To Silence Your Opponents Is A Sign You Are Losing The Debate

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  • Over the past few months I have had several posts on the subject of audacious big tech deplatformings of mainstream conservative opinions, for example here on February 22 and here on March 4.

  • But the big tech social media enterprises like Twitter, Facebook and Google are only one front of the progressive program to suppress any speech that does not toe the official orthodox line.

  • I thought it might be time for a small roundup of recent instances.

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New York Has No Idea Whatsoever How To "Decarbonize" Its Electric Grid

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New York Has No Idea Whatsoever How To "Decarbonize" Its Electric Grid

  • Earlier this month, I had a post discussing New York’s so-called Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019, and the various steps taken so far to implement the Act’s stated goals. The main goals are 40% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in New York by 2030, and 85% by 2050. These goals apply not just to the electricity sector (which only accounts for about 25% of energy usage in the U.S.), but to the entire energy economy.

  • My post relied substantially on the work of Roger Caiazza, who has written extensively at his website Practical Environmentalist of New York about the implementation plans for the Act currently under formulation by various state bodies.

  • The current status is that a series of Advisory Panels have been convened, each covering a particular sector of the energy economy, and tasked to provide advice and guidance as to how to “decarbonize” that particular sector. My prior post covered some of Mr. Caiazza’s comments on the work of Advisory Panels for sectors including Transportation, Industry, Agriculture and Residential. However, at the time of that post (June 3) Mr. Caiazza had not yet commented on the work of the most important Advisory Panel, which is the one dealing with the sector of Power Generation.

  • The so-called recommendations evidence a truly astounding level of amateurism and cluelessness on the part of this Panel.

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