January 16, 2023

If Healthcare is a Human Right, Will the Younger Generation Provide It?

January 16, 2023/ Jane Menton

Though the [nursing] strike has since ended, my thought when I read the headlines was: Here is a legitimate concern: For years, there has been a looming shortage of healthcare workers, and of nurses specifically.
It is possible, maybe even likely, that the nursing union might exaggerate claims of a looming staffing shortage in order to strengthen its negotiating positions.
However, I maintain that we have enough social indicators from Gen Z and Millenials – that is, people in the 20-45 age range – to wonder what might happen if there comes a time when there are not enough people willing to work in industries that require difficult physical labor or emotional hardship.

November 18, 2022

Among The Democratic Party Nobility

November 18, 2022/ Francis Menton

Crypto exchange FTX has now imploded, and it’s turning out to be nothing more than your classic Ponzi scheme — cash in, cash out, and essentially no underlying business.
The collapse came after the leader and face of the enterprise, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), had made himself the second largest donor to the Democratic Party in the just-ended election cycle. SBF’s donations totaled some $70 million or so, apparently consisting almost entirely of money stolen from unsuspecting clients.
Andrew Stiles, writing at the Washington Free Beacon on November 15, has some fun with the recent revelations in a piece titled “Sam Bankman-Fried Is Not Alone: Some of History’s Greatest Monsters Were Democratic Megadonors.” The sub-head is “Disgraced crypto guru continues a storied tradition.”
Stiles compiles a short list of some of the greatest names among the biggest donor/crook/predators in the Democratic Party firmament: Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Ed Buck, and Bernie Madoff.
I have only one quibble with Stiles: Why stop there?

May 26, 2022

May 26, 2022/ Francis Menton

As I’ve been pointing out now for a couple of years, the obvious gap in the plans of our betters for a carbon-free “net zero” energy future is the problem of massive-scale energy storage.
How exactly is New York City (for example) going to provide its citizens with power for a long and dark full-week period in the winter, with calm winds, long nights, and overcast days, after everyone has been required to change over to electric heat and electric cars — and all the electricity is supposed to come from the wind and sun, which are neither blowing nor shining for these extended periods?
Can someone please calculate how much energy storage will be needed to cover a worst-case solar/wind drought, what it will consist of, how long it has to last, how much it will cost, and whether it is economically feasible? Nearly all descriptions by advocates of the supposed path to “net zero” — including the ambitious plans of the states of New York and California — completely gloss over this issue and/or deal with it in a way demonstrating total incompetence and failure to comprehend the problem.
And then suddenly appeared in my inbox a couple of weeks ago a large Report with the title “The Future of Energy Storage: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study.”

May 06, 2022

May 06, 2022/ Francis Menton

My previous post on Tuesday contained some highlights from the May 3 public hearing of New York’s Climate Action Council. The CAC is the body that is charged with devising a “Scoping Plan” to inform all us New Yorkers how we will achieve “zero carbon” electricity by 2030 and a “zero carbon” economy by 2050. I attended the hearing for about two and a half hours, during which about 60 people spoke.
Reflecting on the hearing a few days later, I think there are a few more highlights that would interest the readers, and will give some more insights into the nature of progressive thinking.
So what are the things that do drive the thinking of these other 55 or so speakers, who apparently represent the large majority of New York City’s citizenry?

April 23, 2022

April 23, 2022/ Francis Menton

The federal student loan program has been back in the news lately. On April 6 the Biden Administration announced the extension of the “pause” on payments of principal or interest federal student loans through August 31.
Does anybody believe that when August 31 comes the “pause” will not be then extended yet again at least through Election Day in November? Supposedly this is a matter of Covid “emergency.” Is this particular branch of the Covid “emergency” ever likely to end?
Federally-guaranteed student loans seemed like such a good idea when the program got started. Many of the best and brightest would benefit from college, but could not afford the cost. With federal support via guaranteed student loans, the young people could maximize their potential, and society would benefit at the same time from their increased productivity. The cost to the taxpayers would be minimal because the borrowers would have to repay. What’s not to like?
And then it all turned into a gigantic honeypot to be used for vote buying.

April 20, 2022

April 20, 2022/ Francis Menton

If you’ve been reading this blog lately, you know that the mythical transition to an energy future of pure “green” wind and solar electricity faces a gigantic problem of how to provide energy storage of the right type and in sufficient quantity.
To make the electrical grid work, the wildly intermittent production of the wind and sun must somehow be turned into a smooth flow of electricity that matches customer demand minute by minute throughout the year. So far, that task has been fulfilled largely by natural gas back-up, which ramps up and down as the sun and wind ramp down and up.
But now governments in the U.S., Europe, Canada and elsewhere say they will move to “net zero” carbon emission electricity by some time in the 2030s. Natural gas emits CO2, so “net zero” means that the natural gas must go. The alternative is energy storage of some sort.
So how can this problem be addressed?
To get some insights into the progressive approach, we turn as always to the New York Times.