Monthly Archives: June 2019

Venezuela is not Grenada

Posted on by
Reply

That, there, is a true fact. The University of Georgia’s Emeritus Professor (of Agricultural and Applied Economics) Glenn Ames used that as an argument for why the US ought not invade Venezuela in his Letter to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal.  After all, he wrote,

Venezuela is a large, complex country politically, not a tiny island in the Caribbean.

Also a true fact.  But then he went astray, here and on a couple of other points.  For one, our military is not the disjointed, uncoordinated collection of disparate forces that went into Grenada; it’s much better integrated, and it has demonstrated that improvement many times since.

The Venezuelan military is indebted to President Nicolás Maduro for their perks and subsidies. They are not going to give them up easily.

This badly overstates the case. The Venezuelan military leadership is indebted to Maduro.  The field-grade officers and especially the junior officers and soldiers have no such “loyalty;” they are not going to fight seriously in support of that “leadership”—which steals from their paychecks as much as they do from the civilian citizens of Venezuela.

Cubans and others are embedded in Venezuela’s security apparatus.

As Cubans were in Grenada, and they folded rapidly in the face even of that confused operation.

That Venezuela is not Grenada also is an irrelevant fact.

Some Graphs

Posted on by
Reply

Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden is extremely proud of the economy he and his BFF and mentor ex-President Barack Obama (D) created for us.  Here are some graphs generated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis that illustrate the magnificence of their creation, via The Gateway Pundit.

The X-axis is hard to read (right-clicking on the image and selecting View Image brings up a bigger image), but the right-most vertical gray band is the Panic of 2008, and the time frame following that includes the bulk of the Obama-Biden administration.

Notice a few things in particular, about which Biden has the most loudly bragged.  The Federal debt spiked hard from the Obama bailout, and it continued to run up hard.

Health care costs ran up hard after the passage of his Big F*ing Deal Obamacare, and continued to rise after that, albeit at a lower rate.

Labor Force participation fell during the Panic, and then fell even harder for years during the Obama-Biden years after the Panic’s end.

Worker share of our economy fell some during the Panic, and then it fell hard, and stayed down, during the Obama-Biden years after the Panic’s end.

Median family income fell during the Panic, then it fell harder, and stayed down, during the Obama-Biden years after the Panic’s end.

Run on that accomplishment, Joe. I double dog dare you.

More Censorship Demands

Posted on by
Reply

There’s a doctored video on Facebook that purports to show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) drunk—or in the aftermath of a mild stroke, or…—, it’s been up for several days, and it’s well-known to have been doctored.

Of course, Progressive-Democrats are in an uproar over it and over Facebook’s refusal to remove the video altogether, even though the company has flagged it and downgraded, based on evidence of the video’s faked nature, its rate of appearance in user news feeds.  I disapprove of the video, also, but only because there are plenty of things over which to criticize Pelosi and her fellows without making stuff up, too, and the fakery reduces the overall credibility of those with legitimate criticisms.  However, I don’t want it taken down; that would be rank censorship.

Which brings me to my point.  The Progressive-Democrats are going too far, and Facebook may finally be getting something right.  Here’s Senator Mark Warner (D, VA), Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member, as cited by The Hill:

lawmakers need to put “guardrails in place” to prevent a “crisis of confidence” in what consumers see on social media platforms.

Who cares if consumers don’t automatically believe what they see on social media platforms?  Folks in the center and to the right already are skeptical of what they see in the media, whether social or so-called news, as they should be.  It’s only those to the left of center and beyond who care; it’s only the Left and its Progressive-Democratic Party who want whatever they put up to be unquestioningly accepted at face value.

Here’s Monika Bickert, Head of Global Policy Management at Facebook:

We think it’s important for people to make their own informed choice about what to believe[.]

Yewbetcha.

The Problem from the Fed

Posted on by
Reply

…has been exposed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President.  In a Wall Street Journal piece about the Federal Reserve Bank and the PRC/US trade war, Tom Barkin said this about the Fed’s purpose, and he was serious:

Confidence, especially business confidence, is fragile. It’s our job as policy makers to try to support it.

Um, no. The only policy the Fed should be making is in satisfaction of its mandate: to maintain stable pricing and full employment. Full stop.

The Fed has no business interfering with/influencing businesses—and no need: confidence will come from those stable prices and full employment.

It’s too bad that the Fed so badly misunderstands its role.

The Racism of the Left

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s another example, this one from Progressive-Democrat Ilhan Omar (D, MN).  No link to her remark, she tweeted it and then didn’t have the courage to leave it up; she deleted quickly deleted it.

A “merit based” immigration policy is fueled by racism towards the Latinx community….

Sure.  Because Hispanics are inherently inferior and wholly incapable of competing with other Americans or other immigrants without special treatment.  That’s worse than the soft bigotry of low expectation which President Bush the Younger so rightly decried.  That’s outright racism.

That silence you hear from the Progressive-Democratic Party is their open, straight-up agreement with Omar’s racist sewage.