February 25, 2024

Update On The Good And The Bad Settler Colonialists

February 25, 2024/ Francis Menton

Every year millions of people move from one country in the world to another with the intent to remain permanently in the destination country.
Generally such people then congregate in the destination country among others who have come from the same place of origin. In other words, they form colonies of settlers. According to the normal meanings of the words, they are “settler colonialists.”
So how should these “settler colonialists” be treated upon arrival by their destination countries?
Oddly, the political left has designated some of the settler colonialists as heroes deserving of an enthusiastic welcome replete with lavish taxpayer-funded benefits — free housing (at least temporarily), free medical care, free education for the kids, even cash handouts for food and incidentals; while other settler colonialists have been designated by the same leftists as the ultimate evil.

February 22, 2024

Comment On The Robert Bryce Series "Juice: Power, Politics, And The Grid"

February 22, 2024/ Francis Menton

In a post earlier this week, daughter Jane (just returned from maternity leave) reviewed, and put in an enthusiastic plug, for the new Robert Bryce documentary series titled “Juice: Power, Politics, and the Grid.” Jane even embedded the first episode of the five-part series into the post.
Several commenters offered what seemed to me to be serious criticisms of Bryce’s work. So I thought I owed it to the readers to watch some of Bryce’s series to see who was right. Having now watched a couple of episodes, and some of the rest, I have a few thoughts.

February 20, 2024

February 20, 2024/ Francis Menton

Josef Stalin set the example for the world as the most ruthless practitioner of the art of using a thoroughly corrupt and subservient “justice system” to eliminate all political opposition.
Many, many others have since succumbed to temptation and followed Stalin’s lead. Current notable examples include the recent murder of Alexei Navalny in prison in Russia; Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who fled that country in late 2023 after his arrest was threatened by the Maduro regime; and Pakistan’s former Prime Minister and current opposition leader Imran Khan, convicted in January 2024 of “disclosing a state secret” and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Funny how the countries that engage in such practices virtually always have failed economies as well.
The United States has been remarkably free of such practices during its history. But we have seen a sudden complete reversal of that commendable history with the efforts of multiple political actors and prosecutors to use the courts to take down former President Trump.

February 19, 2024

February 19, 2024/ Jane Menton

Most of what Robert Bryce covers in his new documentary Juice won’t be news to you if you’re a regular reader of this blog. However, it is exactly the tool we need to bring everyone else into the fold.
If you read this blog, I can safely assume you already know a lot about energy and why current government policies towards energy are absurd at best and dangerous at worst. But it’s just as likely that you have several people in your life who struggle to understand your obsession with energy policy or can’t see why it’s so important, so fundamental to modern society, and on the cusp of turning into the biggest political issue of our time.
You can start with the first episode, linked here, and then send it to someone you think could be convinced.

February 14, 2024

February 14, 2024/ Francis Menton

This post reports on two new instances of people applying a little critical thinking to the issue of using so-called “green” hydrogen as an essential piece of a future de-carbonized energy system. This is a subject that I have previously addressed, here in a post of June 13, 2022, and here again in my energy storage Report of December 1, 2022.
The two new pieces covered in this post are (1) a February 1 Report for the Manhattan Institute by Jonathan Lesser titled “Green Hydrogen: A Multibillion-Dollar Energy Boondoggle,”, and (2) a February 13 article in the Washington Examiner by Steve Goreham titled “Can the government create a green hydrogen fuel industry?”
If you think that a “de-carbonized” energy system is some kind of urgent priority for humanity, and you put your mind to how to achieve that, it won’t take you long to realize that hydrogen is the only way to get there.

February 12, 2024

February 12, 2024/ Francis Menton

The Mann v. Steyn trial has ended, for now. Post-trial motions and appeals will likely play out over months and years, with little to report on a daily basis. It’s time to return to some of my other obsessions.
Like the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Over the years, I’ve had more than twenty posts on this utterly failed agency, which is probably the best large-scale example of a pure socialist-model economic enterprise in the United States. A few of my prior posts on NYCHA can be found here, here and here.

After starting out with great optimism and hope in the 1940s and 50s, NYCHA began to decline in the 80s and 90s. By 2000 it had entered full socialist death spiral mode. Each year since then, it only gets worse.
One of the ongoing mysteries of NYCHA has long been why it costs the Authority so much more to operate and maintain an apartment than it costs a private landlord.