November 23, 2020

When Will Biden Denounce Efforts To Silence Dissent?

November 23, 2020/ Francis Menton

While Joe Biden issues calls for “unity” in the aftermath of the election, the effort to silence conservative and Republican voices proceeds apace.
We have just had a bitter election season, and I would very much like to support and join calls for unity and reconciliation.
The problem is that the actions of the people who supported Biden undermine progress toward those goals, and make achieving them well nigh impossible.
Where are the Democrats who denounce these actions? For that matter, where is Biden’s own denunciation of these actions?

November 19, 2020

The Climate Scam: What We Are Up Against

November 19, 2020/ Francis Menton

What I call the “climate scam” is the proposition that human use of fossil fuels will shortly bring about a catastrophic increase in atmospheric temperatures, and that this crisis can easily be averted by governments in a few rich countries, with about 10% of the world’s population, imposing crippling coercive restrictions and cost increases on fossil fuel use while also massively subsidizing alternative “renewable” energy sources.
I have long thought that this scam could not go on too much longer.
But then, you have to consider what we are up against. . . .

November 17, 2020

November 17, 2020/ Francis Menton

If you were lucky enough to attend America’s premier academic institution, Harvard University, you would receive most days, as I do, the Harvard Gazette.
The Gazette generally cloaks its pieces in the mantle of “news”; but really its principal function is to find ways for us Harvard people to congratulate ourselves on how brilliant we are, while at the same time heaping scorn and derision on the the ignorant deplorables who are always getting in the way of our plans to perfect the world.
You only need to read a few of these things before you start to realize that what might seem like the very “smartest” people — the ones with the fanciest degrees and the fanciest professorships at the fanciest universities — are actually painfully stupid.

November 14, 2020

November 14, 2020/ Francis Menton

Just a couple of months ago I had a post titled “The Biden Energy Plan Is A Joke.” Key excerpt: “In any rational world, a candidate proposing the energy plan that Joe Biden has proposed for the United States would be laughed out of the race for President on that ground alone.”
Yet there was Joe in his “victory” speech a few days ago making this ridiculous claim: “America has called upon us to . . . [fight] the battle to save our planet by getting climate under control.”
Really? In truth, there’s only one thing we can say for certain about Biden’s plans for energy, which is that they will have no effect whatsoever on the earth’s climate, at least none that can be measured. . . .

November 10, 2020

November 10, 2020/ Francis Menton

Although no state has actually yet certified its vote tally for President, Joe Biden a couple of days ago (November 7) gave his first speech assuming his potential victory. Here is a brief excerpt:
I pledge to be a President who seeks not to divide, but to unify. Who doesn’t see red and blue states, but a United States. And who will work with all my heart to win the confidence of the whole people.
What complete horseshit. Biden’s entire campaign was premised on accusing his opponent and his opponent’s supporters of being evil people, racists and white supremacists, vicious enemies of the poor and downtrodden.
Those claims and accusations have continued even since the election, and there can be no doubt that they will go on indefinitely. . . .

November 08, 2020

November 08, 2020/ Francis Menton

While we wait for final results in the race for President, other interesting data from the voting have begun to emerge.
For example, NBC has come out with an exit poll of voters, that breaks down the Biden/Trump vote by demographic factors like age, sex and race.
Of course this exit poll seems to have overestimated the Biden vote similarly to most of the pre-election polls. (They have the overall vote at about 53/46 in favor of Biden; actual is more like 51/48.)
With those caveats, this poll has some very interesting information in the category of results by race, ethnicity and sex. . . .