Under What Theory Should Iran Be Immune From Lethal Response To Its Actions?

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  • In today’s world, there are 193 countries in the UN. The large majority of those countries will vote consistently against the United States on measures that come before the General Assembly.

  • Then again, the international system that counts is not the UN, but rather the U.S.-led commercial and legal order of alliances and trade. Almost all of the 193 UN member countries participate willingly in that system, to their great benefit. They may oppose the U.S. on many issues, and they may have disputes with their immediate neighbors, but they don’t make themselves constant troublemakers threatening to disrupt world peace and international trade.

  • And then there is that small number of countries that are engaged in some kind of continuous arms-supported opposition to the dominant U.S.-led order. Out of the 193 countries in the UN, recently that group has consisted of a cohort of six: China and Russia as the big two, plus the likes of Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. Each of these countries has taken its own approach to trying to resist and disrupt the U.S.-led international order.

  • But even among this group of rogue states, Iran has long stood out as the one state actor that engages in frequent and lethal armed attacks against other countries that are not at war with it and have not attacked it.

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Why Government Can't Solve All Human Problems: A Health Care Example

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  • Here’s something nearly everyone can agree on: healthcare in the United States is too expensive. Private health insurance premiums rise inexorably well above the rate of inflation, and so do the costs of government subsidized healthcare like Medicare and Medicaid. And if you face a big medical issue without insurance, the bills could well come to more than you could ever pay.

  • So what’s the answer? To the Left, it’s easy: a “single payer” system, sometimes called “Medicare for all.” In simple terms, the federal government pays for all the medical expenses of everybody. The money comes out of the infinite pile of federal loot. No individual ever has to worry about a medical bill. Prominent backers of the “single payer”solution to healthcare costs include the likes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as organizations like Physicians for a National Health Program.

  • The flaw in this approach is something that is not intuitive to most people.

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Cuba Becomes The First Country To Reach Net Zero. Shouldn't We Be Celebrating?

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Cuba Becomes The First Country To Reach Net Zero. Shouldn't We Be Celebrating?

  • There it was on the front page of Saturday’s New York Times: with a small assist from the United States, the island nation of Cuba has almost entirely ended the use of fossil fuels. Finally, we have the first country in the world to achieve the climate movement’s Holy Grail and nirvana — Net Zero! Or at least a very close approximation.

  • This should be cause for a huge celebration.

  • You would think that the Times, which has been demanding the elimination of fossil fuels for at least a couple of decades, would be leading the celebrations. But weirdly, now that Cuba has finally shown the way, the Times chooses to put a completely different spin on the achievement. The headline and subheadline are (print edition): “U.S. Choking Oil Deliveries To Cuba Ports; Military Action Brings a Nation to Its Knees.”

  • The piece reports that the Trump administration is helping Cuba to achieve Net Zero by preventing oil tankers from landing there. Somehow in this piece, that is spun as a bad thing. It has brought Cuba “to its knees.”

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Mayor Mamdani Declares That New York Has A "Budget Crisis"

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  • One of the first tasks that a new Mayor has in New York City after taking office is to present a budget. Given that an annual New York City budget is well north of $100 billion, you would think that this is a serious undertaking. But our new Mayor is the 34-year-old play-acting college socialist Zohran Mamdani. How does he handle the task?

  • Mamdani kicked the process of with a press conference at City Hall on January 28. Here is a transcript and video of his remarks. Excerpt:

  • I want to speak directly to New Yorkers, who have for too long been misled and misinformed about the true state of our City's finances. I will be blunt: New York City is facing a serious fiscal crisis. There is a massive fiscal deficit in our City's budget to the tune of at least $12 billion. We did not arrive at this place by accident. This crisis has a name and a chief architect. In the words of the Jackson 5, it's as easy as A-B-C. This is the Adams Budget Crisis.

  • Yes, there is a “serious fiscal crisis,” featuring a looming deficit of some $12 billion, all of which is entirely the fault of our prior Mayor (Eric Adams). And what is the underlying cause of this “crisis”?

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End Of The Endangerment Finding: Will "Net Zero" Ever Get Back On Track In The U.S.?

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  • This morning, EPA released the official Federal Register version of its Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding as to motor vehicles. The Federal Register cite is 91 F.R. 7686. This official version of the Rescission, in printed, single-spaced and triple column format, is only 111 pages, versus the 436 pages the previous preliminary version; however, the text appears to be substantially unchanged.

  • It only took literal minutes for the first lawsuit challenging the Rescission to get filed. Here, via the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is a copy of a Petition that they say was filed today on behalf of a large group of environmental and “health” organizations.

  • Without doubt, among this large group of Petitioners and others in the climate and environmental Left, many people have been working feverishly to come up with the magic litigation strategy to get their beloved Endangerment Finding reinstated and then, they hope, to get their government-mandated national “net zero” energy transformation back on track.

  • But is there any litigation strategy that can actually accomplish those goals?

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EPA's Greenhouse Gas "Endangerment Finding": Finally Gone

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  • On Thursday (February 12) President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin held a press briefing at the White House where they announced the issuance of the final rescission of what is known as the “Endangerment Finding” — the 2009 Obama-era regulatory edict purporting to find that CO2 and other “greenhouse gases” are a “danger to human health and welfare.”

  • The regulatory document finalizing the rescission then came out the next day, February 13.

  • The Rescission Document has the title “Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards Under the Clean Air Act.” It is 436 pages long. In this version, it appears in standard double-space typed format, with no page numbers. Although there is a table of contents, the lack of associated page numbers makes it extremely difficult to find anything in the Document.

  • Within a few days, the Document will then appear in something called the Federal Register. The text will not be changed (other than that they reserve the right to correct errors); but the format will be substantially different — single-spaced and with multiple columns on a page. Publication in the Federal Register is what starts the clock ticking for deadlines to challenge the rescission in court.

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