Month: April 2015

Why I stopped reading Gary Hart’s piece on oligarchy.

Found here, via here.  Anyway, I was reading along, and came across this passage: “With its monumentally wrong-headed Citizens United decision…”  That was enough for me.  Oligarchical elements in our Republic are, indeed, rather strong: but it is instructive to note that they were not weaker under so-called ‘campaign finance reform.’ In fact, if you look at American politics since free speech was reaffirmed under Citizens United you will note that a good number of local political dynasties have been since defeated. 2014 in particular gives some prime examples; but ask the Carnahan family in Missouri how well they’re doing these days. Or the Reids in Nevada. I’m sure that there are other political families now on harder political times, these days. Continue reading Why I stopped reading Gary Hart’s piece on oligarchy.

Light posting.

I either will be going to a SCA event, or I will be in bed with what turned out to be mild food poisoning.  …Yes.  I find this particular branch point on my daily decision tree to be rather exciting, myself.  A bit more than I’d like, frankly.

More fallout in Boston from the slow-motion collapse of Big Wind.

Put not your faith in politically-subsidized energy projects:

The [Deval] Patrick [D, MA] administration’s $113 million New Bedford marine terminal, built as a Cape Wind construction staging area, has become a taxpayer-funded boondoggle now that the controversial offshore wind farm project is virtually dead in the water.

The South Coast Marine Commerce Terminal, which is still under construction and sits empty, is also running $10 million over budget and months behind schedule.

Baker administration officials are trying to lease out the terminal, but they now expect to fetch a lower return on the taxpayers’ investment after executives behind Cape Wind pulled out of a two-year deal to rent the 28-acre facility for $4.5 million.

Continue reading More fallout in Boston from the slow-motion collapse of Big Wind.

Martin O’Malley is about to meet his destiny. At relativistic speeds.

I don’t really expect Martin O’Malley to win the Democratic nomination for President. But there’s an upside to this: “Hillary Clinton’s top potential challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination has taken his most direct policy shots at the former secretary of state since her campaign for the White House began, calling out Clinton by name for what he all but called a flip-flop on marriage equality and immigration reform.” Speaking as a Marylander who had to live under this dude’s tenure for eight years: there’s a part of me that is going to enjoy watching progressive Democrats dutifully destroy O’Malley because he has dared disrupt the Narrative. It will be painful. It will be slow.  And, in the end, Martin O’Malley will have to thank them for the privilege of being eviscerated.

 

Tweet of the Day, There’s An Obvious Answer To The Gas Tax Problem edition.

To wit: if gas tax revenues are decreasing, stop trying to find a way to boost them.  People will figure out a workaround for whatever hack you come up with, just like they did for the gas tax. So instead of this…

…governments should instead – and, gee, this is a radical notion, huh? – stop spending quite so much money. Are the roads the most important thing? They are? Great! Put road maintenance at the top, pay that off first, and then decide what the other funding priorities should be.  Because obviously people and governments can’t have everything that they want.  Money does not grow on trees.

No. Seriously. It doesn’t.

Moe Lane

Oh, look. A new Star Wars multiplayer video game.

STAR WARS(TM) Battlefront(TM) (Deluxe Edition) is coming out November 17th. Lotta people been waiting for this one, which is by the way multiplayer, and based on the Only Real Trilogy.

And it is on a schedule, because the Mouse does not accept failure: “People who pre-order Battlefront will get it on December 1, while everyone else can play it starting December 8. The seventh Star Wars film will be in theaters on December 18.”
Continue reading Oh, look. A new Star Wars multiplayer video game.

…The Britt McHenry issue is political? Wait, what?

How can that issue possibly be political?

Yeah, that’s the one where an entitled ESPN reporter got caught screaming at an entitled car towing company; and it turns out that car towers are hated at a level only matched by politicians and telemarketers. So I just assumed that everyone involved was a horrible human being, or at least one not appearing at his or her best. What’s political about it?