June 16, 2020

The Woke Tech Giants Teach Us How To Deal With Systemic Racism

June 16, 2020/ Francis Menton

Essentially every form of discrimination on the basis of race in economic matters has been banned by law in the United States since at least the 1960s. That’s sufficiently long ago that the number of people old enough to have living memory of the days when racial discrimination was legally tolerated is rapidly diminishing.
Today, nearly every institution of any size in our country — businesses, the government, educational institutions, arts organizations, you name it — not only asserts that it does not practice discrimination, but also loudly proclaims a commitment to diversity and to economic justice for African Americans.
And yet, while everyone claims to practice non-discrimination, blacks continue to lag other racial groups in various measures reported in government statistics, particularly income and wealth.
What is the explanation? The one most often articulated at this moment goes by the name “systemic racism.”

June 13, 2020

A Few More Thoughts On The Very Stupid Oil-As-Nuisance Litigations

June 13, 2020/ Francis Menton

It occurs to me to address the question of exactly what about the “oil-as-nuisance” litigations is stupid, and what is not as stupid.
The matters that I refer to include the cases, discussed in the last post, of the cities of Oakland and San Francisco against five of the largest oil companies, recently reinstated by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and sent to be heard in the California state courts.
The matters in question also include numerous other very similar cases (often with page after page of the complaints copied word-for-word from each other) brought by many other California cities and counties, as well as by various other jurisdictions around the country, not the least of them being my own New York City.
To begin with the “stupid” category, there is the fundamental mangling of the whole concept of a legally actionable nuisance. . . .

June 11, 2020

June 11, 2020/ Francis Menton

For some reason I haven’t seen much about this even on climate-focused websites; but in late May one of the litigations that I have named as being among the stupidest in the country, and which had been dismissed by the trial court, got reversed and reinstated by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
What next? The defendants — who are five major oil companies — had managed to get the two related cases dismissed at the trial court level on purely procedural grounds, without ever having occasion to address the merits of whether the so-called “settled science” of greenhouse-gas induced catastrophic climate change is complete baloney.
Now they are running out of such procedural defenses. If they are not going to just concede the cases and fork over billions of dollars, it now looks like they will likely need to attack the fake science. I don’t know that they will. But I do know that they soon may not have much choice.
I’ll begin with a relatively thorough history of these cases so far. . . .

June 08, 2020

June 08, 2020/ Francis Menton

If you dutifully read your U.S. mainstream media, you undoubtedly have the impression that “clean” and “green” energy is rapidly sweeping all before it, and soon will supplant fossil fuels in powering our economy.
After all, many major states, including California and New York, have mandated some form of “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050, or in some cases even earlier. That’s only 30 years away.
And reports are everywhere that investment in “renewables,” particularly wind and solar energy, continues to soar. For example, from Reuters in January we have “U.S. clean energy investment hits new record despite Trump administration views.” In the New York Times on May 13 it’s “In a First, Renewable Energy Is Poised to Eclipse Coal in U.S.” The final victory of wind and solar over the evil fossil fuels must then be right around the corner.
Actually, that’s all a myth. . . .

June 06, 2020

June 06, 2020/ Francis Menton

The last week plus has been filled with demonstrations, as well as many violent riots, the purpose of which is said to be seeking an end to racist or oppressive treatment of black Americans.
Oddly, the demonstrations (and riots) have been largely concentrated in the major cities, almost all of which have been under the political control of the Democratic Party, and generally its left-most wing, for multiple generations. (Exceptions: New York had Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg from 1994 to 2013; and Los Angeles had Mayor Riordan from 1993 to 2001.)
Could the generations of progressive control have somehow failed to end the racism and oppression?
Yes; but of course, it goes far beyond just that. The very most progressive cities, with the very most progressive policies in place for decades, are known for the worst possible outcomes on any metric you can think of. For example: . . .

June 02, 2020

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: . . .