December 09, 2020

The Essence Of Progressivism Is Refusal To Deal With Reality

December 09, 2020/ Francis Menton

Reality is harsh. Let’s face it, our world is imperfect, often even deadly. Not only that, it’s always going to be imperfect. So let’s get to work on enjoying our brief lives as best we can amidst the imperfection, while striving for such incremental improvements to the world as are within our modest capabilities.
If you think that way, you definitely are not “woke.” To be a woke progressive the first requirement is that you must refuse to acknowledge the real world as it exists. You must pretend that the world is something else, something immediately transformable into a fantasy of perfection through coercive collective action. You also must firmly close your eyes to any facts or evidence that might contradict such progressive fantasy, and indeed you must demand that any such facts or evidence be suppressed and never mentioned.
Among numerous illustrations of this point, perhaps the most striking is the current hysteria sometimes going by the name “anti-racism.” . . .

December 08, 2020

It’s Time To Take a Stand for Free Speech

December 08, 2020/ Jane Menton

Back in October, weeks before the election, my dad, the Manhattan Contrarian, came home from his office and announced that he had purchased 6 MAGA hats. He wanted to know if anyone else in our family wanted one.
My dad lives in downtown Manhattan and commutes to his office in the financial district most weekdays via subway. Everyone in the family had the same immediate reaction: “You can’t possibly wear one of those in public - to your office or on the subway. You will get beaten up. This is not a joke. It’s dangerous.”
My dad, as he often does, dissented. His argument was that we need to show that we won’t be silenced…
He has a point. Throughout history and in the modern era, when we look around the globe, the silencing of any who disagree with The Party has been a hallmark of all authoritarian, dictatorial, and fascist regimes.

December 06, 2020

December 06, 2020/ Francis Menton

Have you heard of the “Great Reset”? Until very recently, I myself have only been vaguely aware of the term. But it’s time that we all start paying serious attention.
The term itself appears to be the brainchild of the World Economic Forum and its impresario Klaus Schwab. The WEF is the organization the puts on those conferences in Davos, Switzerland, attended annually by thousands of private jets and their cargo.
Up until now, you have probably thought that the cargo hauled to the WEF conferences was just a bunch of self-important stuffed shirts. You were not wrong about that.
But stuffed shirts can do quite a bit of damage if handed the coercive powers of governments.

December 02, 2020

December 02, 2020/ Francis Menton

My previous posts on the subject of Biden have mostly dealt with issues of corruption, energy and ”climate,” and to some degree foreign policy. But let’s get to the biggest of all domestic policy issues, which is the overall level of spending and taxation.
As with essentially every issue of public policy, when it comes to overall spending and taxes Biden is just all wrong. There is no nicer way to put it.
Biden has called for massive increases in domestic spending, and also massive increases in taxes. The tax increases he seeks are not remotely sufficient to pay for the increased spending, but would be more than enough to crush the hopes of millions of Americans ever to get a little ahead in life. . . .

November 30, 2020

November 30, 2020/ Francis Menton

The most important job of the President is to conduct the foreign policy of the United States, so as to protect the safety and security of the American people. That means dealing with a variety of geopolitical rivals and adversaries.
There are quite a number of serious adversaries out there these days (Russia, Iran, and North Korea come to mind), but without doubt the most significant is China.
In recent years, China has become increasingly assertive on the world stage, as evidenced by a rapidly growing military, massive international intelligence and espionage efforts, and the forging of financial ties with many developing nations (e.g., the “Belt and Road Initiative”). . . .

It would not be an exaggeration to say that figuring out how to deal with China should be the number one priority of the incoming President. Good luck with that if Joe Biden succeeds to the job.

November 28, 2020

November 28, 2020/ Francis Menton

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Plymouth Colony by the Pilgrims in 1620. Plymouth was the first English settlement to establish itself successfully in the New World.
You might think that the four-century mark of that event would be cause for big commemorations. Instead, there has been barely a peep.
Today, the trendy thing is to feel nothing but guilt and shame for the expansion of European civilization, particularly the English version, into North America. . . .