November 08, 2024

Ideas For An Incoming Trump Administration

November 08, 2024/ Francis Menton

Eight years ago, the incoming Trump administration did not “hit the ground running,” to say the least. Indeed, many have speculated that Trump was surprised that he had won.
Whether or not that is true, he was not ready with a slate of people to fill the top cabinet and other posts. On top of that, many of his early initiatives quickly got stalled or hobbled by an orchestrated barrage of attacks from the Deep State.
This time around, I expect a very different scenario. The Trump transition project looks much better prepared. Nobody is going to buy the kind of Deep State scams that stalled Trump’s first administration. Both houses of Congress look like they will be supportive. There is a real opportunity for Trump’s team to come in with an immediate “shock and awe” cascade of initiatives to put the Deep State on the back foot.
So herewith some ideas for early actions that I would hope Trump will take.

November 06, 2024

Election Aftermath: Where Do The Democrats Go From Here?

November 06, 2024/ Francis Menton

Donald Trump has now decisively won the presidency. I have a big collection of ideas for him on things to do once he takes office. So far, I’ve been holding off on writing about those ideas, not wanting to get ahead of myself only to then have him lose the election. Now, the gates can open.
But for today, I have another topic to consider: the relatively tiny shift in party control of seats in the House of Representatives. Indeed, the shift is so small that it is not even completely clear at this writing that the Republicans will control the House. (Current betting odds are around 91% that Republicans will retain control.). Why didn’t Trump have any meaningful coattails in the House? The answer to that question can give some insights into how the respective parties’ odds might change the next time out.
From what I could observe in my own region, a big part of the answer to the question lies in the issue of abortion.

November 03, 2024

November 03, 2024/ Francis Menton

Without doubt, Vice President Kamala Harris has made it as difficult as possible to pin down exactly where she stands on major policy issues.
Besides studiously avoiding challenging interviews, she has also made a series of notable reversals of previous policy stances, for example abandoning previous support for banning private health insurance, for banning “fracking” for oil and gas, and for banning internal combustion cars.
These are all huge issues. If she has walked away from all of these positions, then how can you tell where she stands on anything?
Actually, I would submit that it is easy to figure out how Harris will govern on almost any issue.

November 02, 2024

November 02, 2024/ Francis Menton

In a post on October 23, I noted that, during this election cycle, “energy realism” has suddenly become a positive electoral issue for Republicans.
The positive electoral effect comes from pointing out that a forced energy transition increases consumer costs, limits choice, and destroys jobs. Examples cited included President Trump’s use in his campaign in Michigan of the Biden-Harris regulations restricting combustion vehicles, and his use in Pennsylvania of Harris statements that she would ban fracking.
But there is another approach out there to the subject of energy realism, which has been taken up by many Republican candidates and energy think tanks. That approach goes by the name “all of the above.”

October 29, 2024

October 29, 2024/ Francis Menton

Less than three weeks ago, on October 10, I had a post about Cuba with the headline “What The Hell Is Going On In Cuba?”
The post noted that it is difficult to get real information from Cuba, and that there had recently been almost total silence about that island from the mainstream media. But if one researched some out-of-the-way sources, it turned out that there is some sort of sudden economic collapse going on there.
Besides economic production declining significantly, and pervasive shortages of basic goods, there was also information from a source in Spain (El Pais) that Cuba’s population had suddenly dropped by close to 20% over just the past two to three years. Moreover, the 20% who had departed were not randomly distributed, but rather were concentrated among those in their prime working years, meaning that Cuba had suddenly lost around a third of its working age population.
In the short period since that post, the collapse has accelerated.

October 26, 2024

October 26, 2024/ Francis Menton

I know it’s crazy, but I continue to get the print edition of the New York Times delivered to my front door every day. It’s part of my mission to keep up with what the other side is thinking.
I read it (less and less) so that you don’t have to. But even an occasional skim makes it obvious that with every passing year and day they retreat ever more from serious news, and descend ever further into crazed partisan zealotry.
So imagine my surprise this morning when the entire central portion of page 1, covering three of six column on the top half of the front page, contains what appears to be a huge free ad for Trump for President.