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Here are some of our latest articles you may have missed:
Interesting New Paper On How The Fed Produces Disinflation
Analysis: Excellent New Paper Makes National Security Case for Free Trade
Tim Walz’s Extreme Environmental Record
There seems to be a theme with Tim Walz: the demeanor of a moderate Midwestern dad, and a radical political record.
In a very good piece at Just The News, Kevin Killough goes over Walz’s record, and it’s a doozy.
Let’s review.
As a Congressman, Walz supported cap-and-trade. He received a 7% rating in the American Energy Alliance’s “Energy Scorecard.”
As Governor of Minnesota, Walz pursued aggressive climate and energy policies, often compared to California’s approach. He initially campaigned on a goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030, but later pushed for 100% carbon-free energy by 2050, and then accelerated the target to 2040. He proposed a 70% increase to gas taxes. He delayed the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline replacement project, despite initially seeming supportive during his campaign. Hacked legislation aimed at transitioning to so-called renewable energy, which would significantly increase electricity costs for residents and businesses, and pursued other trendy “Green New Deal”-type initiatives, such as a low-carbon fuel standard and a ban on gas-powered lawn mowers.
As the article notes, this is “right out of California,” and right out of the Green New Deal.
Meanwhile, Harris seems to be a darling of environmental activists. She has received endorsements from major climate activist groups, including the Green New Deal Network, League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, Sierra Club, and Clean Energy for America Action. The article quotes Kaniela Ing of the Green New Deal Network as saying that Harris’s candidacy has “lit a candle of hope” for those who found Biden’s approach insufficient–which is rather saying something, since the Biden Administration has imposed trillions of costs on the US economy with new “green” regulations, as we have covered extensively.
For all these reasons, environmental activists seem to be very excited about a potential Harris-Walz Administration.
The problem with this so-called green agenda is that it would do little to reduce climate change–which is mostly driven by emissions from China and India–or even American emissions–which have gone down as a result of a switch to fracked natural gas, a move which the left opposed–but would impose tremendous economic and practical costs.
Policy Links
#Medicare – The WSJ with a pretty outrageous find: the Biden Administration raided Medicare Part D funds in the Inflation Reduction Act to fund EV tax credits. This caused premiums for seniors’ prescription costs to spike. Now the Administration is covertly trying to pay off insurers to not increase premiums until after the election.
#Starliner – We have been covering the saga of the stranded ISS astronauts–largely because, it seems, no one else is, or almost–and now Elizabeth Howell at Space dot com has a good new report confirming what we were surmising, that NASA is considering sending SpaceX’s Dragon ship to rescue the astronauts, in what would be a further humiliation to Boeing.
#FreeSpeech – A new Brookings study pours cold water on the idea that AI is some existential threat to political discourse. Thus far, the evidence seems to suggest, AI-generated content has been mostly used to create spam, and not political content. While such fears are legitimate, they are also often used by those who would justify censoring online speech, so this is very good news overall, if confirmed.
#BigTech #Chyna – Now that the TikTok divestment bill has passed, it’s being challenged before the DC Circuit Court. At American Compass, Joel Thayer argues that the court should uphold the bill.
#LGBT – A new medical scandal and lawsuit from a “detransitioner”, a young woman who identified as transexual for a time, but later detransitioned and found that the advice and therapy that enabled her delusion were harmful. She received testosterone and “top surgery” (that is to say, mutilation of the breasts). She is now suing Planned Parenthood, her therapist, and her surgeon.
#Energy – R Street’s excellent energy analyst Josiah Neeley has an overview of state and local permitting restrictions on oil and gas.
#Men – You may have heard that women have been outperforming men on most academic measures. However, male students still do better on the ACT. However, they still get less financial aid.
#Antitrust – R Street’s Josh Withrow thinks the DOJ’s antitrust case against Apple is weak. He explains why.
#TaxPolicy – In much the same way that Saudi Arabia has oil, California has Silicon Valley: a giant geyser of unimaginable wealth just pouring out of the ground. There is one difference, however: while Saudi Arabia is enjoying the wealth, California seems determined to destroy it. Which is why they are currently contemplating something called an internet tax.
#Politics – Mark your calendars–to watch, or to spend the day in a cabin in the forest with no access to television or the internet–President Trump and Vice President Harris have agreed to their first debate.
Friday Essays
Excellent story from Pirate Wires, a Silicon Valley magazine covering tech and politics from a non-leftist perspective (let’s put it that way), on how Wikipedia became controlled by left-wing activists.
We mentioned this one before, and we will again because we like it: Dr Samuel Gregg on Juan de Mariana, and more broadly the sadly underrated and too-little-known post-Renaissance Jesuit school of economics.
The great Ed Whelan of EPPC may be the greatest expert on the Federal judiciary on the right of center. He’s held many roles in the world of Federal judiciary nominations, and so has many stories to tell. And he has decided to do so, in a Substack titled “Confirmation Tales,” which are full of great insider stories about judicial confirmation fights. Here’s the latest.
Fascinating history from Onsi A. Kamel at First Things, on the history of Arabic as a Christian language. More Christians lived in Muslim-ruled lands in the Middle Ages than lived in any other empire, including the Byzantine Empire, he notes. Worth remembering on its own, and also because Arab Christians community are under threat of extinction.
Fun piece from Eater magazine: “The Ben & Jerry’s Cookbook Is a Portal to ’60s-Era Nostalgia” It’s the “ultimate Boomer fairy tale, with ice cream.”
Chart of the Day
Today’s chart is a map (do maps technically count as charts?) and it’s a beautiful one, showing how South Korea is a major chip producer. As economist Agathe Demarais notes, “Samsung produces 41% of the world’s DRAM chips and 33% of NAND memory chips” and “[m]any of world’s biggest firms, including Apple, Qualcomm or Deutsche Telekom, depend on Samsung.”
Meme of the Day
